GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Warm with scattered showers, turning colder tonight. Whatever rainfall is left will work itself out of the region today under mostly cloudy skies and temps reaching toward 50. Late this afternoon and tonight, though, a cold front comes through from the west, driving the thermometer down to the mid or low 20s by daybreak tomorrow and bringing blustery winds overnight. Even after the rain stops, runoff and snowmelt into streams and rivers will continue.
You'll find the National Water Prediction Service's river gauges for VT and NH here. There appear to be no real concerns for rivers around here, though the Weather Service in Burlington reports, "As of 3 am, we`re starting to see sharp rises on area rivers and streams, along with signs of ice movement," and they're urging anyone "with interests along rivers and streams" to keep an eye out as the day goes on.
You find beauty in the strangest places. Like in the wheel well of a pickup parked in the Home Depot lot in West Leb. Seriously. Jane Masters has an eye.Time for Dear Daybreak! In this week's collection of submissions from readers, Danny Dover, too, finds inspiration at Home Depot; Lori Harriman finds a splash of color and warmth in a roadside encounter; and Devan Tracy discovers that you can be old and young at the same time—and writes and performs a song about it. And hey, Dear Daybreak needs good stories about chance encounters, thought-provoking incidents, moments of beauty or inspiration... Send one in and help us embrace life in the Upper Valley!12A "Dry Bridge" in W. Leb to close indefinitely starting this morning. In a public alert yesterday, the city said that the bridge, which connects downtown West Leb to the 12A strip, will close today at 9 am "due to safety concerns following a Bridge Load Rating Analysis... Temporary shoring will need to be completed to maintain stability until full replacement." The detour will involve using I-89 and the Miracle Mile and Seminary Hill Road. While vehicles will be barred from the bridge, pedestrians and bicyclists will be allowed except during active construction. More details and a detour map at the link.More VT town meeting and some NH school meeting results. The Valley News has been steadfast in gathering and reporting what happened, and you'll find it at the link: Royalton rejected floodplain regs, Norwich axed fireworks funding for the Norwich Fair, Newbury VT backed its bond to build a new fire station, Sharon voted in favor of a $7.1 million bond for an addition to its elementary school while Bethel and Royalton voters narrowly (by a 20-vote margin) rejected a $3.8 million bond for middle and high school renovations. Voters in Hanover, the Dresden district, and Grantham backed school budgets. But in Springfield, VT, they rejected the school budget 616 for, 689 against.
And as Seven Days' Rachel Hellman notes, Thetford voters backed a social services coordinator position to help residents find services and financial support. “It was not a particularly contentious issue,” newly re-elected selectboard member Steve Tofel tells her. “People spoke in favor of the item, citing examples of where it was needed.”
Twice a police chief in the Upper Valley, Jen Frank now heads to Florida. Windsor's chief since 2021 and Norwich's before that, Frank will become chief in Milton, FL, a fast-growing city of 11,000 people in the panhandle, reports the VN's John Lippman. “I have a big heart for the Windsor community. This is a very special place. I am not leaving here because I am unhappy," Frank tells him. In part, she says, it's the opportunity to command a force twice as large as the one she runs now, and in part there's a family draw: her parents, children, and granddaughters all live in the Sunshine State.SPONSORED: On March 15: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber & More! Spend a memorable evening at the Lebanon Opera House being reacquainted with characters from Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, and much more, including Hamilton and Les Mis. Embracing audiences with his vibrant character and powerful voice, Terry Barber is known for his vocal range as a rare countertenor. A past member of the award-winning group Chanticleer, he has been a soloist at venues from the Met to Moscow’s Svetlanov Hall. He grew up in Hanover and is pleased to return. Sponsored by Terry Barber.Hartford police identify man who died under WRJ bridge. You may remember Eric Francis's report about a man found dead last Thursday night at a homeless campsite by the Urban Bridge. Now, the VN reports, police have identified him as Richard Riff, 54. No cause of death has been determined yet, but “there is no reason to suspect foul play,” Hartford Police Chief Connie Kelley told the paper yesterday. Riff was a longtime cook at Wendy's before losing his job, as well as a volunteer at LISTEN's community meals, Eric reports in an email. In recent weeks Riff had finally been given a housing voucher, but was still on a waiting list for motel housing when he died.In a tract of New Hampshire forest, evidence of songbirds' territorial flexibility. As Morgan Kelly writes for Dartmouth News, it was lying in "a store of hand-drawn paper maps for every year since 1969" created by retired biology prof Richard Holmes and his students studying songbirds in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Grad student Miranda Zammarelli digitized them and, working with other Dartmouth researchers, has shown that birds distribute themselves "in a way that promotes equal fitness across high- and low-quality habitats, despite changes in population size," Zammarelli says.SPONSORED: The Promise of Sunrise: Finding Solace in a Broken World. Green Writers Press is thrilled to announce the coming release of Ted Levin’s book. Former Bronx Zoo zoologist and award-winning nature writer Levin spent Covid rediscovering his valley, watching the seasons pass, day by day. The book chronicles his rediscovery of the Thetford hillside on which he lived, recounting the daily joys of homeground. Rich with keen observation and vivid emotion, Levin explores the human experience as part of a larger ecosystem, reminding us of the importance of slowing down. Pre-order at the burgundy link.The people "behind the screens": making Hop Film work. It starts with Johanna Evans, a Dartmouth grad who runs the effort. “The movie business is still a handshake business. All of this is … based on trust and relationships. The studios know that we’ll put on a good show, and that’s why they’re happy to work with us," she tells The Dartmouth's Noelle Blake. Then there's Peter Ciardelli, who manages film copies and student projectionists. And there are the projectionists themselves—“Anyone who’s a real movie lover is suited to be a great projectionist,” Evans says. Blake dives into the inner workings.For NH syrup producers, federal funding freeze could hurt. That's because among the grants that have been frozen is money the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association has been using to promote the state's syrup around the world, reports Amanda Gokee in the Globe's morning newsletter (no paywall). As a result of the multi-year grant, the group's president tells her, sales of NH maple syrup had been growing in India, Colombia, and the Caribbean, going head-to-head with Canadian syrup. “The timing of [the freeze] couldn’t be any worse, being that it is maple season,” he says.Manchester, VT authorities identify three people injured in Mt. Equinox plane crash last week. Just for a quick catch-up: They were identified as pilot John Murphy, his son Josiah Murphy, and daughter Cheyenne Murphy, all from the Baltimore area, reports VTDigger's Greta Solsaa. They were on their way to Rutland's airport to go skiing at Killington when their plane went down on the mountain outside town: the father suffered a head injury and broken wrist bone, Josiah also suffered a head injury, but astoundingly, Cheyenne was unscathed.Burke receiver speaks. Florida lawyer Michael Goldberg, who has kept strict silence about his plans for the ski mountain under his court-ordered receivership, issued a public statement yesterday, reports The North Star Monthly (possible paywall). With two potential investors calling a public forum for tomorrow about their own bid, Goldberg said he'd dealt with them last year and "at the last minute they attempted in bad faith to renegotiate a lower price." Instead, he wrote, he's negotiating with a potential buyer with "deep roots in the community" who has committed to "many millions of dollars" in improvements.What a difference a year makes: Most VT school budgets pass. Unlike last year, Springfield is among just a handful of towns where voters rejected school spending. Budgets passed in at least 101 districts on Tuesday, reports VT Public's Lola Duffort, according to preliminary data. They failed "in just nine districts, many of which typically have trouble passing budgets," she writes. "Despite intense cost pressures, districts either aggressively downsized or kept services as-is this budget cycle to keep taxes in check." The state teachers union estimates schools are planning to cut 300-400 positions next year.UVM imposes hiring freeze. It "pauses the hiring of all long-term faculty, staff and postdoctoral positions" for at least 60 days, reports VTDigger's Auditi Guha, and will be reevaluated in April. The move comes in response to uncertainty about federal funding and the fact that "multiple federal funding sources for university operations fac[e] proposed reduction or alteration," according to a Tuesday memo from university administrators. As of yesterday, there were 131 jobs open on the university’s career portal, Guha writes.VT's sawmills are closing. And it's not just loggers who are worried about that. "Vermont is the third-most-forested state in the country," writes Jonathan Mingle in a deep look at the issue in Seven Days. "Its forests add about three times more wood in volume than is harvested each year. Yet it is getting harder than ever for mills to find logs." Financial incentives aren't there for private woodlot owners, he reports, while opposition to cutting on public land has grown and subdividing land is literally cutting forestland. Mingle explores those issues, what it takes to keep forests healthy, and the forest industry's future.Going with the flow. Standing on a beach, it’s easy to think oceans just flow back and forth. But NASA’s data visualization, An Ocean in Motion, shows how awe-inspiring their constant movement really is. NASA’s ECCO model pulls data from satellites, buoys, and other instruments to create a Van Gogh-esgue display of ocean currents around the globe. It lets us see how a watery “highway” transports heat, nutrients, and carbon, changes water's density, feeds sea life, and affects temperatures on land and at sea. Transformed into ceaseless blue and white motion, it makes for great science and beautiful art.The Thursday Wordbreak. With a fine word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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The Oxbow High principal will read from and talk about his Kirkus Prize-winning (and National Book Award finalist) YA novel about a rural Vermont boy trying to forge ahead in a world that doesn't always see him for who he is. 6:30 pm in the Mayer Room and online.
The VT Center for Ecostudies' monthly gathering at Putnam's vine/yard in WRJ normally has a guest, but after a last-minute cancellation, host Jason Hill will fill in to chat with any S&S regulars or curious newcomers who show up. 7 pm.
The winner of the Best Director prize at Cannes, Rungano Nyoni's film explores both contemporary Zambia and the turmoil within a middle-class family, taking off from its surreal start on a Lusaka road at night as Shula, its central character, comes across the corpse of her uncle. 7 pm.
Duby's new novel builds on real events: a series of serial murders in Indiana and Illinois exposed when Belle Gunness’s farmhouse in La Porte, Indiana, burned down in 1908. Duby runs with the speculation at the time that a headless woman's body found in the ruins wasn't Gunness, who had staged it all and escaped. 7 pm.
Though it's rooted in Scandinavian folk music, the seven-member Finnish band (fronted by four fiddles) roams widely through the world's traditions, playing, as a reviewer once wrote, "with fire, speed and passion, [though] the members’ collective playing is precise even at hyperspeed." 7:30 pm.
It's not the original folk-rock duo, of course, since Neal Shulman retired in 2018. But Rex Fowler and his wife, Dodie Pettit, have carried on with an expanded band, mining the decades' classics and forgotten pieces of the playbook. 7:30 pm, and you'll need to call for reservations.
Haitian artist Ferene Paris' keynote at the Hartford School District; César Alvarez and Emily Orling’s
egg
, "a performative salad of sound, poetics, anecdotes, and real-time collaboration"; and retired diplomats Erica Barks Ruggles and Dickey Center director Victoria Holt, in a discussion at Dartmouth about the ancient institution of diplomacy.
Tonight's music, today.
You read about Frigg just above. But to really appreciate them you've got to hear them.
, which is on their newest album, whose songs they're featuring in their current tour. When those fiddles get going...
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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