GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly sunny. Any clouds that are around first thing will dissipate this morning, and we’re looking at another warm, sunny day, as we climb from around 50 to around 80 by mid-afternoon. Back into the lower 50s overnight, and with a cold front coming in, things will turn cooler tomorrow.
Look up! The photographic benefits of craning your neck…
“Roof and solar panel inspector?” writes Sally Duston about the great blue heron perched on her Thetford roof. “But more likely looking for water with food. Unfortunately the brook is down to a trickle...”
And “dinner-time rush hour” is how Laura Pulaski labels the interesting pattern of contrails overhead in Post Mills on Tuesday.
It’s time for Dear Daybreak! This week’s collection of short pieces from readers about Upper Valley life features Kathy Smith’s striking photo of a young farmer napping among her cows at the Tunbridge Fair; a description of Emma Templeton and Jason Hirschhorn’s wedding last month, which hereby gets the Daybreak award for Most Creative Use of the Upper Valley in a Life Event; Matt Cardillo’s encounter with some unexpected ring-necked pheasants; and John Stadler’s filmed-sung-and-animated alternative to the usual birthday song. And hey, Dear Daybreak needs submissions! If you’ve got something to share, please send it in!
River vs. reservoirs: Why Hanover and Lebanon are affected differently by the drought. Leb has mandatory water-usage restrictions in place; Hanover hasn’t even asked for voluntary cutbacks, reports Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News. The difference? Lebanon relies on the Mascoma River, which has seen diminished flows; Hanover has three reservoirs, which altogether are where they were last year without any drought—though the story for well users is different. The town is planning to put in a public faucet for residents with well problems. Meanwhile, NH has been drawing down Grafton Pond to feed the Mascoma, but Grafton’s getting low; Mascoma Lake’s next.
Claremont School Board votes to close elementary school. In a 4-1 vote last night, the board moved to close Bluff Elementary as part of a district plan to address its multimillion-dollar deficit. Instead of a broad consolidation plan the district had originally put forward, the board accepted a proposal by the district’s elementary school principals to move entire Bluff classrooms—with their teachers and paraprofessionals—into the city’s other schools. "We are going to make sure that every child and adult that walks through our doors knows that they are welcomed," said Disnard Elementary principal Melissa Lewis. WMUR’s Maria Wilson reports.
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At W. Leb’s Kilton Library, artworks by Kendal residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Though the group has been meeting for several years with printmaker Patty Castellini, writes Marion Umpleby in the VN, the exhibition that went up a couple of weeks ago marks the first time their work has been shown to a wider public. The show, in conjunction with Upper Valley Walk to End Alzheimer’s, features nearly two dozen paintings by a dozen artists. Erica Myers, Kendal’s memory care resource coordinator, tells Umpleby about one resident who’s nearly non-verbal, but when painting “it’s just joy that comes across her face.” Opening reception tomorrow.
Robert Redford flashed a smile here. It was nearly 40 years ago and it was just for a day, but that’s how Dartmouth’s communications office headlines its remembrance of the actor and director’s visit to campus in 1987; Redford died on Tuesday. The occasion back then was a ceremony in his honor by the Dartmouth Film Society. “I spent most of my life feeling like an academic failure, largely because it was true. One of the reasons was because of my father’s dream that I go to Dartmouth,” he joked at the time. Retired film and media prof Mary Desjardins weighs in with a tribute.
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NH Exec Council confirms new Supreme Court member, re-ups John Formella as attorney general. The council voted 4-1 to confirm Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s pick of Bryan Gould as an associate justice, with Democrat Karen Liot Hill as the only dissent, reports Ethan DeWitt for NH Bulletin. Hill raised concerns about Gould’s previous work for the GOP if school funding or election law cases come before the court. Gould had said he would probably recuse himself in cases involving the state Republican Party or Casella Waste Systems, which he’s also represented. Formella’s confirmation passed 4-0, with Hill recusing herself because GOP legislators want his office to investigate her.
Research heats up on NH’s shrinking snowpack. While there’s plenty of data on snow depth and water equivalent, writes NH Bulletin’s Molly Rains, it’s been collected over the decades by everyone from dam operators to farmers and ski slope owners, all using it for their own purposes. Now, Plymouth State meteorologist and researcher Eric Kelsey and a grad student are working to pull it all together to create a picture of long-term snowfall patterns around the state and to build a “snow drought index” showing differences from historic norms. Rains also checks in on an effort to enlist citizen scientists to report snow depth via app, and work at Hubbard Brook on forest impacts.
VT’s tax revenues could come to depend on Baby Boomers’ deaths. Not to put too fine a point on it, but that’s the gist of the comments VT Public’s Peter Hirschfeld collected from a key legislator and others for his story on VT’s estate tax. It’s a flat 16 percent tax on estates over $5 million, and over the last fiscal year, that brought in $55 million—more than double the previous annual record. The tax, along with the state’s aging population, “position [Vermont] to see significant revenue increases,” Hirschfeld reports. He talks to House Ways and Means Chair Emilie Kornheiser about the tax’s role in redistributing wealth, and to analysts about its implication and drawbacks.
Phil Scott signs executive order aimed at speeding housing development. VT’s governor announced the move yesterday, unveiling orders designed to add flexibility on energy codes, streamline wetlands permitting, and fast-track permitting processes related to housing. "Even if we wait for the legislature in January, it's going to be months before anything's passed," Scott said. "We need relief right now." While housing developers gathered with the governor agreed, some legislators did not, report VTDigger’s Shaun Robinson and Charlotte Oliver. Scott “is assuming authority over policy that really the Legislature has,” said one House member.
Here’s a shortage you probably haven’t thought about: driver’s ed instructors. Vermont’s public schools don’t have enough of them, the state has no program to train new ones, and private driving schools whose cost is prohibitive for some families mean that some high school seniors are graduating without ever learning formally to drive, reports Seven Days’ Ken Picard. And in a state where public transit is at best limited, “the ability to drive can be essential for attending college or trade school, holding a job, and achieving personal and financial independence…. [It] can mean the difference between a family having another breadwinner or not.” Picard explores the issues.
Say it ain’t so! “Suspiciously circular” stones called out in World Stone Skimming Championships. The competition’s been held every year since 1997 at an abandoned quarry on Scotland’s Easdale Island, writes Lou Bodenhemier for Explorer’s Web, and this year drew 400 competitors and 2,000 spectators—to an island with only 61 residents. Crucially, the stones have to be found by competitors amidst the island’s naturally occurring bounty of slate. Several of them approached the judge with concerns about cheaters. The judge in turn had a quiet word; the “stone-doctorers” ‘fessed up and were disqualified, and the competition resumed without incident.
Landscape photography, near and far. My Modern Met has highlights of the just-announced Natural Landscape Photography Awards winners. Joy Kachina was named photographer of the year for her portfolio of Tasmanian images. Her peeling tree bark is especially gorgeous—rich and almost painted. Margrit Schwarz, whose Grand Canyon close up won best photo, was moved by “the hidden abstract forms shaped by stone, water, and time—details that spoke with as much power and mystery as the immense landscapes above.” You can see full portfolios on the competition’s website; don’t miss Kenny Muir’s “Woodlands,” a backlit, mystical beauty of a tree.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
At Feast & Field in Barnard, the Pointe Noir Cajun Band. The VT-based Cajun/zydeco band features Cannon Labrie (accordion), Katie Trautz (fiddle), Chris Hollis (guitar), Helen Doyle (bass), Jay Ekis (guitar), and Michael Bradshaw (drums). As always, gates/food at 5:30 pm, music starts up at 6.
Bill Hearne at the Star Mountain Events Barn. As Seven Stars Arts says, it’s a “rare opportunity to hear this music legend in person”: Bill and his late wife, Bonnie, were keystones in the early Austin music scene, recording and performing with Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, Nanci Griffith, Robert Earl Keen, and lots of others. Hearne will be joined onstage by Colin McCaffrey and Dave Rowell. 7 pm.
Garnet Rogers at the Flying Goose in New London. The famed singer-songwriter has put in a long and fruitful life as a touring musician, but in recent years he’s cut back some, turning his attention to a different kind of writing—a memoir, a couple of novels… But he’s still on the road, and he’ll be at the Flying Goose at 7:30 pm. You’ll need to call to see if there are any seats left: (603) 526-6899.
And anytime, JAM’s got some highlights. Which this week focus on solar: lectures on home weatherization, heat pumps, solar panels, and more sponsored by the Hartford Energy Commission; writer and activist Bill McKibben in Woodstock last year talking about the way forward in a film by Anne Macksoud and John Ankele; and environmentalists Chuck Collins and Gus Speth at the Norwich Bookstore two years ago talking about Collins’ novel, Altar to an Erupting Sun.
And for today...
Because any time Ghost Hounds goes up with a new song, it’s worth paying attention.
See you tomorrow.
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