GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Daybreak is brought to you this week with help from Bookstock. Join us on May 15-17 for our beloved Used Book Sale, talks by bestselling authors, poetry readings, and activities for all ages on and around Woodstock’s historic Green. Details on the Bookstock website.
Rain again. There’s still a low sauntering eastward and more upper-level dynamics bringing moisture-laden air into the region, boosting rainfall amounts today and possibly tomorrow—a boon, given that both VT and NH are running well shy of normal for liquid from the sky this year. We’ll see rain today and tonight, could be heavy at times, highs in the mid or upper 50s, lows tonight in the mid 40s.
Red heads? Red bellies? Let’s start with the first:
Red headed woodpeckers are rare in the three states of northern New England, but there one was on Elm Street in Norwich on Tuesday. Word got out and Erica Faughnan got there as quickly as she could. Her photo’s at the top link; here’s her email explaining what happened and why she was so excited.
The more common red bellied woodpeckers are sometimes confused for their red-headed counterparts (because, thoughtlessly, red bellies also have red heads). And it turns out they also have a sweet tooth, as Diane Church’s video from Fairlee attests.
The last Dear Daybreak for a while. Given the relative lack of fresh new stories coming in, it feels like it could use a break. So I’m putting it aside to catch its breath for the rest of the spring and summer. Today, though, you get to enjoy Steven Atkins’s photo of sunset in Hanover from a couple of years ago, Beth Kanell’s New Engand-infused poem about social media, Christine Hoskin’s back-story on one song that was featured in the recent Community Chorus concert at Mascoma High, and a new poem by Danny Dover. If you’d like to send anything in during the hiatus that can hold until fall, please feel free to do so here.
Mascoma Bank joins with Maine-based Androscoggin Bank. It’s not exactly a merger: Instead, the two community banks have announced that their parent companies will form a single mutual holding company, with Mascoma president/CEO Clay Adams as CEO, and Androscoggin CEO Neil Kiely as president. As Adams explains, customers should see no difference: “Same teams serving them, same brand, same board of directors overseeing Mascoma Bank.” However, behind-the-scenes functions will be consolidated. “Scale matters in many industries, particularly those that are heavily regulated and have a high reliance on technology. We will be able to invest more heavily in these areas to the benefit of our customers and communities.”
As VT experiments with custom-designed homes, Hartford is in the mix. The idea is to speed up housing construction by using state-approved designs to shorten the review process. The pilot program, 802 Homes, is launching in Hartford and two other towns, writes Kevin McCallum in Seven Days. A Boston architecture firm designed 10 homes, all aimed to cover the middle-income range that is especially scarce in the state. Builders who choose one of these would need only the signature of a building official, though Hartford is still trying to figure out how to streamline the review process. A survey with the ten designs is out, in case you want to weigh in.
SPONSORED: Dr. Lorissa Segal’s primary care practice is accepting new patients. Join Dr. Segal for an open house on May 20 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m at 21710 Maxham Meadow Way Unit 1D in Woodstock. She has 20+ years of experience and has been in the Woodstock community since 2008. She focuses on personalized, preventive care and provides conveniences not generally available in traditional practices—including advanced screenings and diagnostics, and a customized Wellness Plan. Members can book same-/next-day appointments and reach Dr. Segal after hours for urgent needs. Sponsored by MDVIP.
Windsor Co. sheriff’s deputy leaves to become Woodstock patrol officer—replacing demoted chief. Jabri Black resigned from the sheriff’s department last week to take up the Woodstock job—in part, he tells the Valley News’s Alex Ebrahimi, because “there’s just a lot of uncertainties” with the sheriff’s department. His new position was open because Woodstock told former chief Joe Swanson that, by failing to report for patrol duty after the village board upheld his demotion, he’d effectively resigned. “They’re claiming resignation,” Swanson’s lawyer says. “I’m claiming: How can you resign from a job you never applied for?”
Your chance to see Meze on Main Street: A Love Story. Jim Zien’s short documentary about WRJ’s Tuckerbox restaurant and its owners, Vural and Jackie Oktay—made with the help of JAM executive director Samantha Davidson Green—premiered at the White River Indie Festival in March. It’s had some screenings, but now JAM is making it available for anyone to see online: the story of how Vural and Jackie met, of the restaurant they nurtured and built, the unexpected calamities it’s faced and the community support that’s kept it going.
SPONSORED: Limited tickets remain for Molly Tuttle at Lebanon Opera House! Join us on Thursday, May 28 at 7:30 PM for an evening with the Grammy-winning roots artist, known for her dynamic blend of bluegrass, Americana, pop, and rock. This performance is almost sold out, so grab your tickets before they’re gone! Sponsored by Lebanon Opera House.
Flagship universities head in different enrollment directions. UNH is up, UVM down.
In all, reports the Portsmouth Herald (via NHPR), first-year undergrad enrollment at UNH’s Durham campus grew 4 percent year-over-year, surpassing administrators’ projections. “By the start of May,” Ian Lenahan writes, “the school reported it received 2,471 deposits for the 2026-2027 freshman class, showing growth amid an ‘anticipated demographic cliff’ with fewer U.S. college-age students, according to UNH President Elizabeth Chilton.”
Meanwhile, Seven Days’ Alison Novak reports, UVM “is projecting a 7 percent decline in undergraduate enrollment next school year, including a 15 percent drop in first-year and transfer students.” That decline “has created an approximately $12 million general-fund deficit,” according to administrators. “The university plans to address the shortfall by reducing its fiscal year 2027 general-fund budget by 3.25 percent and making additional cuts in housing, dining and other departments,” Novak writes.
Young Randolph-born composer redoes VT’s state song. As Seven Days’ Amy Lilly writes, “School-age Vermonters are generally familiar with ‘These Green Mountains,’ even if they can’t sing it.” First written for a 1999 competition by Diane Martin and arranged by Rita Buglass-Gluck, it’s getting a brushup thanks to 20-year-old Callum Robechek, now studying songwriting at NYU but, back in middle and high school, a percussionist and violist for the Green Mountain Youth Symphony. The symphony commissioned Robechek to come up with a new arrangement, which premiered in April and gets a Montpelier performance this weekend.
Overdose deaths in VT dropped sharply in 2025. Overall, there were 170 overdose-related deaths in 2025, reports VTDigger’s Brendan Rose, 25 percent fewer than the year before, and a marked decrease from the pandemic-era high of 269 deaths in 2022. Though overdose deaths have been decreasing nationally, the CDC reports, VT’s decline is among the sharpest in the country, along with NY, RI, NC, and AL. “Vermont has made significant investment to combat overdoses and has received millions from opioid manufacturer settlements, which have helped pay for programs across the state,” Rose writes. He details the state’s findings
BlueCross BlueShield requests its lowest premium hike in Vermont in five years. That’s the headline atop Lola Duffort’s VT Public piece reporting that the insurer is requesting a premium rate increase of 3.1 percent for small businesses and 5.2 percent for individuals, much less than the double-digit rate boosts requested in recent years. MVP’s request is larger—7.8 percent for individuals and 9.1 percent for small businesses—though its rates are lower than BCBS’s. The state’s health insurance marketplace still remains the most expensive in the country, “for now.” As Duffort writes, state officials “have been leaning aggressively” on hospitals to cut prices.
Okay, just sayin’… Researchers at University College London who looked at survey responses and blood test data from over 3,500 adults in the UK found that those who engaged more often in arts and cultural activities “appeared to have a slower pace of ageing and a younger biological age,” reports Theo Farrant for euronews. In fact, people who took part in an arts activity at least once a week appeared to age around 4 percent more slowly than those who did so rarely—a difference on a par with the one between people who exercise regularly and those who don’t. (Cue opaerobics…)
The Thursday Crossword. It’s puzzle ninja Laura Braunstein’s “midi” — enough to make the world go away for a few minutes, but won’t put you behind for the day. If you’d like to catch up on earlier puzzles, you can do that here.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
THERE'S SOME GREAT DAYBREAK SWAG! Like Daybreak tote bags, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
HEADS UP
Annette Gordon-Reed gives a spring Montgomery Fellows lecture, “The (Un)Conscious (Un)Raveling of History”. A historian at Harvard, Gordon-Reed is a leading Thomas Jefferson scholar, the winner of both a Pulitzer and a National Book Award for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, the author of numerous books that touch on race in American history, and a former Dartmouth trustee (she’s Class of ‘81). 4:30 pm in Filene Auditorium.
Cristy Road Carrera reads from Sink or Burn at Dartmouth. Simon & Schuster describes the Cuban-American artist, musician, and writer’s novel, set nearly a century from now, as a "Punk Rock Love Story of Resistance, Revolution, and Resilience in a Dystopian Future." 4:30 pm, Baker Library, Room 206.
Lampshade Poets open mic at JAM. A monthly gathering for regulars and newcomers to share what they’ve been working on with an attentive audience. 6 pm.
The Howe Library and Still North Books & Bar host a crossword puzzle competition. There’s a waiting list for competitors, but you can just show up and watch as 12 lucky contestants do their best with an easy, a medium, and a hard puzzle. The three competition puzzles are by Hanover resident Kate Hawkins (a published NYT constructor), along with a warmup puzzle by Alisya Reza (Dartmouth ’22) and a bonus puzzle by Dartmouth librarian Laura Braunstein. Afterward, Laura will make the puzzles available on her site; hard copies should be available at Still North and the Howe. 6:30 pm at Still North.
Hop Film screens Mr. Nobody Against Putin. David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin’s 2025 documentary about a Russian primary school teacher, “known as a mentor and prankster,” who’s reluctantly drawn into the state propaganda machine for the war in Ukraine and begins to document “intimate and revealing footage of Putin's regime” as a way of blowing the whistle on the war’s impact. Won the 2026 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. 7 pm in the Loew Auditorium.
And for today...
Les Greene & The Swayzees were also NPR Tiny Desk Contest finalists—though it would be hard to call them unknown, given that they played the Kennedy Center early last year (before everything blew up) and Greene himself was the voice of Little Richard in the 2022 film Elvis. They’re a rock/R&B band from Miami and, to a person, consummate performers, with a horn section and drummer that just won’t quit and led by a singer who can not only command a living room but turn the smallest space into a big stage. Here’s “Long Story Short”.
See you tomorrow.
Looking for all of the hikes, Enthusiasms, daybreak photos, or music that Daybreak has published over the years? Go here!
And always, if you’re not a subscriber yet:
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editors: Jonea Gurwitt, Sam Gurwitt
