GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Some sun, more clouds, still blustery—but not like yesterday. It's still going to be cold, though: highs today in the mid teens, winds from the west—with gusts into the 20-25 mph range—dropping the wind chill into the minuses. This is, by the way, the 10th time this season that arctic air has dipped into the lower 48—usually, it's two or three times a winter. This afternoon's clouds will dissipate overnight, letting temps drop to 0 or below by dawn.A little leftover from Friday. Spotted on the Norwich Inn parking lot by Andrew Garthwaite.PCB contamination will close parts of Hartford High, HACTC. After air sampling last spring disclosed a problem in the culinary arts and health science areas at the career and technical center, reports Christina Dolan in the Valley News, testing found that PCBs were present "in paint and wall finishes, caulking, floor substrates and window glazing" there and in the high school auditorium, gymnasium and academic spaces. With remediation work scheduled alongside separate renovations, officials are hoping they can stage the work to allow students, faculty, and administrators to remain in the building.WRJ's Long River Gallery up for sale. "Own a beloved art gallery with 28+ years of history," runs the print ad placed by current owners Kathy Detzer and Rachel Obbard. Obbard took it over in 2018 from Dave Celone, who in 2016 had moved it to WRJ from its original location in Lyme. "Rachel and I have decided, with a mixture of nostalgia and anticipation, that it is time for each of us to move on from our beloved art gallery," Detzer tells Artful's Susan Apel in an email. In the winter issue of Image mag, Susan profiled the gallery, its owners, and what moving to WRJ meant. With photos by Lars Blackmore."The messiness of creating a book": CBS Sunday Morning talks over the process with famed Norwich author and illustrator David Macaulay. It starts at the National Building Museum in DC, where there's a trip inside Macaulay's mind in the form of a retrospective, then moves on to the Ledyard Bridge. "We look at things, but do we actually see them?" he tells CBS's Martha Teichner. "I think that's my goal in a way, is to have people open their eyes to the ordinary, to the everyday, to the things they take for granted." Also: a look at what he's working on, in which Norwich and his old dog Stella feature.A barbecue tour of the Upper Valley. Nothing but respect for the Valley News's Marion Umpleby, who convinced her editors to let her hit the region's barbecue joints—from Wicked Awesome and Big Fatty's in WRJ to Poor House in Canaan and Smokin’ Bear in Dorchester ("a small takeout spot beside a wooded snowmobile path" that's "one of the newest additions to the roster"). And next month, MJ’s Barbecue will open a takeout window at Roma’s Butchery in South Royalton. Umpleby checks out the spots and the food.How Fairlee got from $0 to $16 million in planned development in just five years: Nope, not zoning. On his Brick + Mortar blog, Jonah Richard, who's had a big hand in that development, writes that if zoning were the answer, "then towns like Orford, NH—where there’s literally no zoning—would be development hubs. But Orford hasn’t seen a new project since the commercial park in the '80s." Instead, he argues, it comes down to two things: local leadership that not only backs good projects, but puts in the work to make them happen; and locals "who are personally invested in seeing the town change."Dartmouth, DH officials say NIH cuts would bring "fewer breakthrough therapies and less innovation." They're on hold in the courts right now, but federal plans to curtail "indirect costs"—Dartmouth gets about 64 cents to keep the lights on and pay support staff for every dollar that goes directly to research—are drawing dire warnings, reports NHPR's Paul Cuno-Booth. The college could lose up to $24 million and Dartmouth Health some $8 million a year. About 1,300 jobs at the college are funded at least in part by federal grants, and another 400 at DH, reports the Globe's Amanda Gokee (paywall).Dartmouth will host the NCAA ski championships. Here's a look ahead. They don't start until March 5, but in the VN, Christina Dolan offers a look at the planning. For one thing, there's the new Oak Hill, which Lyme native Jack Lang says has been crucial: “I cannot emphasize enough how much the facility has made a difference in our ability to train productively every single day,” he says. Then there's the new slalom course at the Skiway—and the snowmaking strategy to prep it. “When you’re going 60 miles per hour, if there’s a soft pocket of snow, that’s not a good thing,” manager Mark Adamczyk tells Dolan."It’s not often that we respond to an avalanche in Franconia Notch." That's what the folks at the Pemi Search and Rescue Team posted last night after they helped evacuate an ice climber Sunday who was partially buried after he and his partner triggered an avalanche at the base of Cannon Cliffs; the climber, Vincent Lapointe, 31, of Montgomery Center, VT, slid 300 feet before coming to a stop. His friend was able to hike down and help him out, and the two were making their way toward the trail when rescuers found them. Link goes to NH Fish & Game's recap on its FB page.In high winds, frigid temps, 125 rescued from Pats Peak chairlift. It took about 90 minutes yesterday afternoon to get everyone off the lift at the ski area in Henniker after it stopped when "the rope that runs the lift up the mountain derailed from the cable," reports WMUR's Isabel Litterst. "It was kind of scary for a few minutes, but when we saw all the people coming to save us, we knew that we were OK," one skier from Massachusetts told her. This marks the third time in recent weeks that a ski resort in NH has dealt with a major lift problem.NH's new voter law will be in effect for town meeting. The GOP-backed measure went into effect after the November elections, and as NHPR's Todd Bookman notes, "Under the new law, all qualified residents seeking to register [for the first time] must bring either a birth certificate, passport or naturalization papers to the polls to prove their U.S. citizenship. In addition, voters will need to prove their residency (domicile) with an acceptable document, such as a driver’s license, utility bill or lease." Here's the Secretary of State's page with all the details.Ziz and Zajko arrested in Maryland. Jack LaSota, the alleged leader of the "Zizian" group tied to six deaths—including the shooting of a border patrol officer in VT last month—and Michelle Zajko, a group member and “person of interest” in the 2022 murders of her parents, were arrested Sunday evening in the western MD town of Frostburg. A third person with them—also detained in the 2022 investigation into Zajko's parents' deaths—was also arrested. Zajko is alleged to have supplied the guns used in the border shootout by Teresa Youngblut and Felix Bauckholt. VTDigger's Peter D'Auria and Alan J. Keays reconstruct what happened and how it fits into the sprawling investigation.“Always, from the very beginning it was the snowflakes that fascinated me most.” Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley gets his turn in The New Yorker. He was given a microscope when he was a kid, in the late 1800s, and spent way more time than he should have studying the natural world on his family’s farm in Jericho, VT, but it was the snowflakes that really got to him, writes Chris Wiley. Bentley at last persuaded his parents to pony up for a pricey camera, and you know the results: thousands of beautiful photos that also served scientific research, art, and jewelry. (Note: possible paywall.)The Monday Jigsaw on Tuesday. "This is a wonderful view looking up Elm Street with the sawmill in the foreground. It reminds us of the power of water and how fortunate Norwich was/is to have Blood Brook," writes the Norwich Historical Society's Sarah Rooker.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
Fleece vests, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies... Strong Rabbit has updated the Daybreak page to keep up with the changing weather. Plus, of course, the usual: 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!
Working quickly, the center has convened a panel of five experts to talk over the impact of foreign aid and "the possible implications of funding freezes or cuts." With Tim Rieser, a senior advisor to VT US Sen. Peter Welch; former USAID staffer Sarah Charles; Geisel prof Dan Lucey; diplomat and former US ambassador Erica Barks-Ruggles; and Dickey Center director Victoria Holt. 6:15 pm in Haldeman 41 (free ticket required) and livestreamed.
The Tuesday poem.
One must have a mind of winterTo regard the frost and the boughsOf the pine-trees crusted with snow;And have been cold a long timeTo behold the junipers shagged with ice,The spruces rough in the distant glitterOf the January sun; and not to thinkOf any misery in the sound of the wind,In the sound of a few leaves,Which is the sound of the landFull of the same windThat is blowing in the same bare placeFor the listener, who listens in the snow,And, nothing himself, beholdsNothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
— "The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens.
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.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page
, or if you're a committed non-FB user,
.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! Subscribe at no cost at:
Thank you!