GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Snow. Then more snow. This is basically an all-day affair, though the totals aren't forecast to reach more than maybe four inches around here, higher amounts to the south and east. Temps will reach either side of freezing this afternoon, so you could get some trace amounts of rain mixing in depending on where you are. Snowfall winds down this evening, temps down to around 20 or the upper teens overnight.Finding your way, thanks to two chisels and some public-spiritedness. In the center of E. Barnard, at the intersection of Broad Brook and East Barnard roads, a quartet of signs have long pointed the way to Barnard, Pomfret, Royalton, and Sharon. The signs have been there at least a century, and over time they wear out—enough times that Randy Leavitt, his dad before him, and his grandfather before him have all crafted new ones. The latest batch just went up—incised, not just painted—and Leavitt captures the process in a two-minute stop-motion video, complete with his own fiddle soundtrack.Amtrak train collides with truck in Sharon. Yesterday's southbound Vermonter, with 68 passengers and eight crew members on board, hit a flatbed hauling stone around 11:45 am on Quarry Road, just off Route 14. The truck was hauling a load from the Black River Quarries headed for Massachusetts, reports John Lippman in the Valley News. No one was injured—the train “caught the trailer and took the trailer off of the tractor completely,” assistant Sharon fire chief Dustin Potter tells Lippman. A new engine brought passengers as far as WRJ in mid-afternoon; they were then bused to Springfield, MA.Looking ahead to next week: Next Tuesday will be town meeting or all-day balloting in many towns on the VT side of the river, as well as balloting for Hanover and Dresden school district voters (Hanover's annual school meeting will be this Thursday). To help get ready, here's a roundup of resources so far:
The Valley News has done its regular helpful job of pulling together the highlights of what's on the agenda at town meetings in the region. After running in the Sunday print edition, its online page of town meeting previews began filling up yesterday, and you'll find warrant articles of note, budget figures, and other information by town (scroll past the town lists to the article headlines). If you don't see your town, check back.
In Pomfret, incumbent selectboard member Benjamin Brickner and former selectboard member Frank Perron Jr. are facing off for a three-year seat on the board (two other seats are uncontested). The VT Standard's Tom Ayres spoke to both of them about why they're running and the key issues they're aiming to address.
In Chelsea—where, you'll remember, four of the five selectboard members resigned last November following a set-to over the town highway department—only one of selectboard seats is contested. That race pits 25-year-old Chelsea native Jesse Kay against 21-year-old part-time teacher Ronald Johnson. In the White River Valley Herald, Darren Marcy outlines the contest.
Norwich, meanwhile, is hosting two contested selectboard races. Current board chair Marcia Calloway is challenging incumbent member Rob Gere for the three-year seat he holds, while Priscilla Vincent is challenging incumbent member Aaron Lamperti for the two-year seat to which he was appointed following Claudette Brochu's resignation. In the Valley News, Patrick Adrian talks to the candidates about their priorities and where they stand on some of the contentious issues facing the town.
Finally, the two school board seats on the ballot in Hanover are uncontested, but as they did last year, a group of Kendal residents posed questions of the two candidates—Kimberly Hartmann and Tara Velozo—anyway. They received detailed answers from Hartmann, but, at least as of Friday, nothing from Velozo. Here's their writeup.
SPONSORED: Last chance to get the best discount on a Crossroad Farm CSA. Today, February 28, is the last day to take advantage of our 7 percent discount on CSA memberships. Shares can be redeemed at the farm in Post Mills and at the Norwich farmstand. Shares don't expire and can be used to purchase everything Crossroad carries, including hanging baskets, vegetable starts, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a wide assortment of products from other local farms. Sponsored by Crossroad Farm.Woodstock Foundation leaders fire back against former leaders, allege inappropriate payment to Inn, Billings whistleblower. Faced with allegations by the board's former chair and vice chair of an abusive culture at the Woodstock Inn and Billings Farm, which the foundation owns, its new leaders yesterday filed counterclaims, which were also detailed in a letter to employees, reports Ethan Weinstein in VTDigger. Among other things, they allege confidential payments from the board's former vice chair to the woman who first aired the grievances. The former vice chair calls the new claims “99% untrue."Valley News drops "Dilbert." In a note to readers on the front page of today's print edition, publisher Dan McClory writes that the paper "decided over the weekend to discontinue the cartoon in response to the cartoonist’s disparaging remarks about Black people during his online video show on Feb. 22. Quite simply, we could no longer in good conscience provide a platform and financial support for his work." And forging into a minefield, the paper also plans to "survey readers regarding our comic strips more generally in the near future."Dartmouth Skiway will host "skimo" race in memory of local racer and outdoorsman killed in accident. Chris Bustard, who went to Dartmouth and moved with his wife Kate to Leb in 2021 after the birth of their son, was hit by a car while out for a run in Florida last December. The 34-year-old was an avid skimo—or ski mountaineering—racer, known in local circles "as being an upbeat, fun loving, kind-hearted guy that loved to...push himself and do so in a positive way that built others up as well,” fellow racer Ed Warren tells The Dartmouth's Adriana James-Rodil. Warren and others have organized a March 19 race at the Skiway to benefit Bustard's young son's college account.SPONSORED: Pilates Instructors/Fitness professionals needed in New London. Uniquity Pilates is a boutique Pilates studio with a loyal following in the Lake Sunapee /Upper Valley region. We are seeking instructors with the following credentials to help our busy studio: Comprehensively trained Pilates Instructors or instructors-in-training to teach 2-16 hours per week for classes and private sessions. NCPT preferred and/or Barre and/or TRX-certified instructors or instructors-in-training. Learn more at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by Uniquity Pilates.New plan suggests how complicated cutting Lake Fairlee pollution will be. The Lake Fairlee Watershed Assessment came out last week, writes Li Shen in Sidenote, aimed at tackling the sources of phosphorus and sediment that have degraded the lake's water quality. A road survey showed a few runoff problems, and more significant shoreline runoff issues at Treasure Island and Ohana Camp. It also found erosion through a hayfield along Middle Brook and from livestock on Blood Brook. The town can address roads, Li writes, but "few solutions will be realized without private landowner participation."Federal judge rules that NH's boarding of mental health patients in ERs illegally "commandeers space, staff, and resources" from hospitals. In an order issued last week, reports Paul Cuno-Booth for NHPR, US District Judge Landya McCafferty ordered the state and hospitals to propose a timeline for ending the practice—which hospitals have challenged in a separate lawsuit. ER boarding, NAMI-NH said in response to the ruling, is “directly related to the long-term failure of the State [and] hospitals...to develop a comprehensive system of community-based services for people with serious mental illnesses."It's the Granite State. And that means elevated radon levels. That message was borne home again by a new NH-specific study from the US Geological Survey, writes Hadley Barndollar in NH Bulletin. The White Mountains region is particularly prone—uranium, which releases radon as a gas, often goes hand in hand with granite—but other parts of the state (hard to tell from the map, but that red spot looks like Hanover) have elevated levels of the dangerous gas, which is also found in well water. "The good news," writes Barndollar, "is that there are proven methods to remove the gas." The state provides free test kits.And no, radon doesn't stop at the river. It's an issue in Vermont, too. The state's radon info page is at the burgundy link, and its town-by-town map of radon risk is here—hit the "Elevated Radon Results (by town)" tab at the left for a map showing percent of tested residences with elevated radon levels (you'll need to click on a town to bring up its name and results).“I suspect all those naysayers who don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions also don’t believe in glitter.” In the latest installment of her new monthly column for the Rutland Herald/Times-Argus, WRJ author and writing teacher Joni B. Cole tackles New Year’s resolutions. A good two months into the year. Fully acknowledging past slip-ups and even current ones (“I haven’t even completed my vision board for 2023, yet I have already broken most of the resolutions I’m about to glue onto it”) she’s nevertheless committed to creating a glittery montage of her aspirations for this year. That's one off the list.He painted his house. Not the walls, but nearly every. thing. in. it. Artist Alain Biet drew inspiration from thousands of common objects, and then drew those thousands of common objects—painted them, actually. Lemon squeezers. Film reels. Cheese graters. A timeline of typewriters. Bottles of glue. And many, many lightbulbs. (Can’t imagine anyone is bonkers enough to try to count them… OK, it may be 112.) In Grand Canons, his stop-motion animation short video, they whiz by, each painting a gem and together, set to music, a ballet.The Tuesday Vordle. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
Sweatshirts, hats, and, of course, coffee/tea/cocoa mugs. It's all available thanks to Strong Rabbit Designs in Sharon. Check out what's available and wear it or drink from it proudly! Email me ([email protected]) if you've got questions.
This morning starting at 9:25, Norwich University will host a livestreamed panel discussion on the history of conflict in eastern Europe, "On the Margins of Europe: War Before War." It features photojournalist Dmitri Beliakov, whose work is now on display in the university library, along with Human Rights Watch's Rachel Denber, CNN's Nathan Hodge, and Kyiv Volunteer Battalion commander Sergey Filippov.
At 6 pm, Here in the Valley kicks off a regular 4th Tuesday Live Band Karaoke at Sawtooth Kitchen. As HitV's Jakob Breitbach writes, "From Disney to Dolly, 'Purple Rain' to 'Brown Eyed Girl, choose from decades of tunes and try, just try to stump the band. The house band has hundreds of songs to choose from. Lyrics displayed on a large TV monitor on stage."
At 7 this evening, Hanover's Howe Library hosts the next installment of its book discussion series led by novelist Rachel Barenbaum. Her guest this evening is Patricia Park, whose new coming-of-age novel, Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim, features the daughter of Korean Argentinians living in Jackson Heights, Queens.
At 8 this evening, the Dartmouth Gospel Choir presents its winter concert at Rollins Chapel. The event may be sold out, but the Hop says that a limited number of tickets will be available at the door. The choir is led by Guest Director Ahmaya Knoelle Higginson, who is also directing the 40th anniversary NYC revival of the gospel musical "Mama, I Want to Sing!"—co-written by her own mother, Vy Higginsen.
And the Tuesday poem...
Four Tao philosophers as cedar waxwingschat on a February berry bushin sun, and I am one.Such merriment and such sobriety –the small wild fruit on the tall stalk –was this not always my true style?Above an elegance of snow, beneatha silk-blue sky a brotherhood of fourbirds. Can you mistake us?To sun, to feast, and to converseand all together – for this I have abandonedall my other lives.
— "Waxwings" by Robert Francis (
that "of all the great neglected poets, [he was] the greatest").
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!