GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Rain then showers then clouds. The front that came through last night took its own sweet time arriving, and it's doing the same as it exits. At some point this morning things will come to an end, though showers could linger a bit; there might even be some gaps in the clouds by late afternoon. Temps will creep up toward about 50 today, before dropping briefly—finally, sugarers!—to around the freezing mark overnight. Winds today from the north.So far, most rivers around here seem to be in decent shape. There are flood watches in NH and southern VT, and NOAA's projections have the Connecticut at the West Leb gauge cresting just shy of "action" stage (which is below the minor flood stage) late this afternoon; the Wells at Wells River is headed in that direction. The Williams River near Rockingham is approaching minor flood stage, and it's worth keeping an eye on things everywhere as the day progresses; the burgundy link takes you to the Weather Service's river gauge map. New England 511 shows no weather-related road closures.Before the only thing you remember is mud season, let's recall the beauty of a winter's sky.
Here's West Woodstock on an 11-degree morning, from Anna Megyesi.
And here's the Northeast Kingdom at sunset, from Herb Swanson.
In the second article in her Daybreak series on NH skiing in the age of climate change, Beatrice Burack looks at those two community hills, as well as Pats Peak in Henniker, which invested in snowmaking almost as soon as it opened in the '60s. The contrast is stark, she writes. Yet what the smaller hills possess—a strong sense of community, the ability to make skiing accessible to people without deep pockets, and above all, a stepping stone to downhill skiing —can't be replaced. Tomorrow: NH's nordic areas.
In all, the much-debated $99 million bid to build a new middle/high school for the Mountain Views district, eight years in the making, failed by 340 votes, 1,910 against to 1,570 in favor. The
Vermont Standard
's Tom Ayres held a group interview yesterday with school and school board officials, who expressed not just chagrin, but some uncertainty about what comes next. Supt. Sherry Sousa "
laid much of the blame for the bond’s defeat on state officials and lawmakers," Ayres writes, saying that the vote "to me is more of a statement about the state of education funding in Vermont" than about the school plan itself. More at the link.
In Springfield and other Vermont towns, voters lash out at school budgets. In all, reports Vermont Public's Lola Duffort, nearly a third of towns where school budgets were on the ballot Tuesday rejected them. The closest the state's come to such a strong sign of discontent in the past decade was in 2014, when 14 percent of budgets failed. Rising costs driven by health insurance premiums, special ed, and other factors played into the votes, but top of mind for many voters were property tax increases driven by decisions made at the state level, including the legislature's tinkering with the funding formula.SPONSORED: Learn about joining Advance Transit's team at this Saturday's Driver Information Session! Stop by AT's Operations Center on Billings Farm Road in WRJ this Saturday, March 9 from 8-10 am. You'll learn about our mission and the perks of being part of our team, from competitive pay to comprehensive benefits. Hear from current employees about AT's rewarding careers and find out about our Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) training program; you can even submit an application on-site! Learn more here or at the burgundy link. Sponsored by Advance Transit.In Hartford, voters put three new members on the selectboard, reject bid for 1 percent sales tax. In a four-way contest, reports the Valley News, Sue Buckholz and Brandon Smith won two-year seats on the board, unseating incumbent board member Rocket and defeating Aaron Warner; Ida Griesemer defeated Patrick Danaher for a three-year seat. Meanwhile, the VN's Patrick Adrian writes, Hartford and Woodstock went opposite directions on adding a 1 percent local-option tax on retail sales: Woodstock voters gave it the go-ahead; Hartford voters, worried about sending business across the river, said no.Leb police charge driver who struck school crossing guard on Monday. The incident outside the Mount Lebanon School took place right around when school was starting that morning. The guard, 87-year-old Willie Downing, tried to stop a black Nissan Sentra, but though the driver slowed, "as the Crossing Guard approached to talk with the driver, the momentum of the vehicle knocked the Crossing Guard to the ground," the LPD says in its press release. The driver "after seeing the Crossing Guard fall, left the scene." She was identified as a 20-year-old W. Leb resident.Hartford girls', boys' hockey win state championships. It was the first crown ever for the girls' team, writes Tris Wykes in the VN, and "storylines abounded" in Tuesday night's win in Burlington over Missisquoi: It hasn't been that long since the team went 30 games without a win; the team got inspired by a "stream-of-consciousness monologue" by sophomore Zoe Zanleoni ahead of the third period, with Zanleoni scoring the winning goal; sophomore Flynn Moreno, whose mother, Kim, died in January, "shared an emotional, on-ice embrace with her father, Hartford athletic director Jeff Moreno." The boys' team, meanwhile, beat Colchester for its first title since 2009.SPONSORED: Ready for a fresh start? Shake off the winter doldrums with Pompanoosuc Mills' Spring Cleaning Clearance Event! This weekend only (March 8th -10th) at our East Thetford workshop & Flagship showroom. Spruce up your dining area with clearance chairs and stools starting at just $100 and enjoy up to 75% off premium lighting from brands like Hubbardton Forge. Don't forget, Daylight Savings means brighter days ahead—illuminate your home with locally-made, sustainable style! Sponsored by Pompanoosuc Mills.At the Hood, does gold in art highlight "sociopolitical messages" or does it "simply dazzle"? In Seven Days, Upper Valley arts writer Eric Sutphin tours "Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value and Worth", the traveling exhibition now on display at the Hood, and takes us along—from the 30-fot-high "Larmes d'Isis II," which Sutphin writes "resembles the behemoth spinal column of a long-extinct beast," to a series of "standout" works that explore a range of social issues. The show is a treasure chest, Sutphin writes, "yet gold tends to draw attention to itself rather than the work's subject matter."For older Granite Staters who need inpatient psychiatric care, "there are not a lot of resources in the community. And this population is … just growing and growing and growing.” NH Bulletin's Annmarie Timmins looks at the special challenges facing the state's mental health system when it comes to geriatric patients. They're more likely to have dementia or Alzheimer's, they metabolize medications differently from younger people, they often need help with basic tasks, and may have substance abuse issues. And, Timmins writes, for patients over 60, "demand exceeds the availability of beds." She explains.In VT, meanwhile, an aging population presents challenges across the board. Seven Days' Colin Flanders takes a sweeping look at what it means to have the third-oldest median age in the country (behind ME and NH). More people are dying in VT than are being born, and the state's population—especially its school-age and working cohorts—is shrinking. The state's rural-urban divide is growing, with everything from housing to health care for seniors in rural areas in short supply, while VT businesses try to find workers and its schools watch their student bodies contract. Flanders explores it all—including why the state continues to have trouble attracting younger newcomers.
Photos: "Technical mastery and ability to produce original, striking narratives.” That’s the standard for the Professional category of the Sony World Photography awards, and the shortlisted finalists live up to it brilliantly. My Modern Met has a sampling; you can see everything here. The photos are alive with color, contrasts, deep connections, and utter solitude, and are as diverse as the countries, landscapes, and people they picture. Especially powerful are a father and child in Cape Town, part of a project by photographer Angelika Kollin to capture “a sense of belonging, love, and emotional intimacy.”The Thursday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
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At 6 pm today, the Rumney Sessions at Fable Farm Fermentory in Barnard continue with an acoustic string band trio, a sea shanty pub sing, and an open jam led by Randy Leavitt. Doors (and food and bar) open at 5:30, music starts up at 6.
This evening at 7, Shaker Bridge Theatre starts up its run of The Minutes, Pulitzer winner Tracy Letts' dark comedy about the American experiment and its myths—seen through the lens of one tiny local government and its city council. That's about all to say. As Variety's review of the Broadway version put it, "The Minutes is an astonishing feat from playwright Tracy Letts, not least for its brilliant finesse in orchestrating audience expectations and surprise. To go in knowing little or nothing about the play may be the purest way to experience its dramatic cunning." At the Briggs Opera House in WRJ.
Also at 7, the Norwich Bookstore hosts Jacquelyn Lenox Tuxill, reading from and talking about her new memoir, Whispers from the Valley of the Yak. It traces a wide-ranging life, from a childhood in China and India with medical missionary parents to growing up in West Virginia to adult life in Alaska, NH and VT, with returns to China—and to her past.
And at 7:30 pm, New London's Flying Goose Pub brings back folk singer-songwriter Lucy Kaplansky, former clinical psychologist and singing partner of Shawn Colvin, Nanci Griffith, Suzanne Vega, and other folk luminaries. NPR's Scott Simon a couple years back asked her about how her training affected her songwriting. "I think I see everything in a different light," she replied. "The whole world—I mean, people's interactions, people's motivations, people's conflicts—has just become more sophisticated and more nuanced. And that can't help but show up in my writing."
And to take us into today...
Some years back, a biography came out about the blues musician known as Seasick Steve that found that not only was he younger than he'd claimed (born in 1951, not 1941), but he also wasn't an untutored Mississippi-born knockabout who made his first guitar out of a cigar box and a spatula. While some of his tales about his early life may have been true, mostly he was an accomplished California session musician with a storytelling gift. But here's the thing: No one much cared. Because Seasick Steve is also a magnetic performer with a supremely loyal following. "Alone on stage," a reviewer once wrote, "his surprisingly nimble fingers coax or hammer extraordinary noises from his selection of battered guitars, while his voice is a rich, weathered growl."
—because it's still raining and we can't just pull the covers up and go back to sleep, right?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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