GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Maybe some more rain. The airflow aloft shifted last night and it's bringing in warmer, moister air. The result is a chance of showers until around mid-day, a slight chance afterward, mostly cloudy throughout, and highs around 70. Low 60s again tonight.The golden hour.
Amazing what looking at things the right way can do. Crossing the bridge by Hartford Town Hall toward sunset last week, Joan Ecker was struck by the almost Maxfield Parrish quality of the light. So she lay down to get a photo without the overhead wires and caught the White at a particularly un-WRJ-like moment.
Meanwhile, on Winona Lake, over between Newfound and Winnipesaukee, here's a red-tinged sunset caught equally between sky and water, from Edward Bernstein.
If Dartmouth wants to develop golf course land, Hanover may want to tax it. The 120 acres on two parcels is assessed at $12.8 million, reports Tim Camerato in the Valley News. It's been tax-exempt, and the college would like to keep it that way. But Hanover's new director of assessing, Norm Bernaiche, tells Camerato that since the now-closed country club had dues-paying members, at least part of the land should have been taxable—and now that the college's master plan suggests future development there, its valuation is likely to increase. The town is currently revisiting the land's tax status.Nine-vehicle pileup closes stretch of I-91 in Hartland. It happened yesterday morning on rain-slicked highway around northbound mile 66. Two cars collided, bringing both lanes to a standstill, according to state police. A pick-up hauling drilling equipment was unable to brake and hit several of the stopped vehicles, which caused front- and rear-end damage to a whole set more. Troopers from three barracks, Hartland and Hartford fire & rescue, VTrans, and a DMV inspector all responded. There were no injuries.SPONSORED: Preserving the bounty of a Vermont summer is more than a passion at Blake Hill—it's a business plan. With the short growing season, it's essential to work closely with area farmers to capture summer's essence, to be shared and enjoyed year-round. Organic chili peppers, herbs, onions, and tomatoes grown at Honey Field Farm help produce savory and spicy jams that are shipped across the country. One company's growth becomes growth for all its local partners. The maroon link takes you to more about Blake Hill's "Seed to Jar" initiative and jam-inspired recipes. Sponsored by Blake Hill Preserves.Boom time for underpass artists. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. But in addition to the new art that'll go into the Leb tunnel sometime, Fairlee recently got a grant to improve the I-91 underpass that separates the village from Lake Morey and the town forest. "The underpass is dreary and without lighting. The space echoes the traffic sounds from I-91. The sidewalks are handicap-accessible yet, for many pedestrians, the space is not inviting and feels unsafe," the community arts council writes in its call for artists who are up for changing all that. Deadline for preliminary applications is Aug. 1.Seriously? Purring beetles? Apparently so. "If you pick up a milkweed beetle and listen very closely, you may hear it purr or squeak," Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast writes. It's the second week in July, and this week she turned photo duties over to the UV Land Trust's Jason Berard, who obliged with poke milkweed, wood lilies (a favored deer snack), pitcher plants (now in bloom), sheep laurel (toxic to sheep, humans, and other mammals, though oddly, not to caribou), red milkweed beetles, and blue-eyed Atlantic fritillaries. A lot of people who don't think they qualify for rental assistance actually do. That's the point that LISTEN's Heather Griffin made to NHPR's Rick Ganley yesterday, as they talked about the situation facing renters as the end of the eviction moratorium approaches and rental supplies are tight. "I'm just encouraging folks to work with the programs that are available, to communicate with the landlords, [and] find people like us that can help with that process to avoid the eviction altogether," she says. "So both parties—the landlord and the tenant—can be happy in the end and the landlord does get paid."“You don't need to just passively pay your [power] bill once a month." That's selectboard chair Andrea Hodson of Harrisville, NH. The town of just under 1,000 residents, a bit east of Keene, in May became the second in the state to opt for a community power plan—the same type of move that's on today's Hanover ballot. NHPR's Daniela Allee looks at the former mill town's bid to lower energy costs for residents, bring more renewable energy into its mix, and maybe develop its own solar and battery storage capacity. "Approach with skepticism." NH Consumer Advocate Don Kreis takes a critical—but entertaining—look at a recent comparison of state-by-state energy costs by the personal finance site WalletHub (though Kreis calls it Wallet Hub, noting, "I refuse to let corporations tell me when to use the space key.") The study says NH's energy costs are 10th highest in the US—a ranking businesses, policy makers, and potential in-migrants might notice. Not so fast, says Kreis: Among other things, the data is two years old, and doesn't differentiate between residential and commercial rates. Tiny home park headed for Charlestown? That, at least, is what Domenic Mangano is planning, writes Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days. Mangano founded the Jamaica Cottage Shop, which builds sheds and small homes, in Londonderry, VT in 1995. He's just sold it to Claremont's Bill Silverstein, who owns WHS Homes, whose homebuilding brands include TimberPeg and American Post & Beam. Mangano's signed a non-compete agreement—but figures since the tiny home park will be all rentals, he's in the clear. "My guess is, gravity finally won." One of the more popular tracts owned by the Society for the Protection of NH Forests is the Madame Sherri Forest in West Chesterfield—in no small part because of the remains of the "castle" that once stood there. Madame Sherri—the Paris-born costumer for the Ziegfield Follies—built her castle in 1929, threw lavish parties there, and eventually abandoned it. It burned in 1962, but the granite staircase held out...until Saturday. Jack Savage, the society's president, tells the Reformer's Bob Audette the recent rains may have unsettled the ground underneath the stairs. "I came into college telling other Black people that racism didn't exist where I came from. And being looked at like, I don't know, ‘What's wrong with this Black girl? I think she's broken.'” Ashley Menard-Livingston grew up in Vermont and was one of the people VPR's Myra Flynn talked to for her highly personal reflection on whether it's possible for Black children to be comfortable growing up in the state. Others in Ashley's family didn't have the same experience, and neither did Flynn. "I’ve got a whole lot to say on the matter," Flynn says, "because not only did I just move here, not only do I now have a Black kid in Vermont, but in 1985—I was that kid." Gov taps Hallquist to lead VT broadband expansion. Phil Scott and Christine Hallquist were once political opponents, but yesterday, Scott named Hallquist to run the new Community Broadband Board, created by legislation this year to help budding communications union districts get off the ground. She starts July 26, Seven Days' Kevin McCallum reports.Maine adds shark detectors off the coast. It's been a year since a New York woman was killed by a great white shark off Harpswell, and the state is tripling the number of acoustic detectors in coastal waters to help monitor sharks already tagged by researchers. One issue, though: The monitors don't feed data to the state in real time, reports the Bangor Daily News's Bill Trotter. Instead, the sensors have to be retrieved and their data downloaded. The findings will be shared with the New England White Shark Research Consortium, which includes fisheries officials in NH, ME, MA, RI, and Canada. No one's saying there actually is a sea god. But if there were a sea god... Jeff Overs is a BBC photographer, and last week he was in Newhaven, which is an English Channel ferry port. The winds were fierce and the tide was high and the waves were crashing over the harbor wall and he was taking photos. And, well, one of them got to looking a little freakily like a... the BBC calls it "Neptune." Somewhere, Poseidon's fuming, don't you think?
And just catching up...
NH reported 30 new cases Friday, 37 Saturday, 25 Sunday, and 17 yesterday, bringing it to an official total of 99,770. There was 1 new death during that time; they now number 1,375 altogether, while 15 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (no change). The current active caseload is at 197 (down 15). The state reports 9 active cases in Grafton County (down 2), 5 in Sullivan (down 1), and 11 in Merrimack (down 6). In town-by-town numbers reported by the state, Hanover, Canaan, Lebanon, Enfield, Plainfield, and Claremont have 1-4 each. Grantham is off the list.
VT reported 16 new cases on Friday, 13 Saturday, 4 Sunday, and 8 yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 24,489. Deaths remain at 258, while 5 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 2). Windsor County saw 2 new cases during that time and now stands at 1,525 for the pandemic, with 5 over the previous 14 days, while Orange County had 1 case, bringing it to 825 cumulatively and 3 over the past two weeks.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:
At 6 pm, the Dance Theater of Harlem kicks off its Hop residency with a ballet class for beginners—the first of three master classes they'll be offering this month. The class is intended for participants 12 and up, and there are just a few spots left. They'll be performing later this week.
At 6:30 this evening, Fairlee's Concert on the Common presents NY-based Annie and the Hedonists, which can swing from 1920s classic jazz to '30s blues to Western swing, country, doo wop, and early rock. They'll be taking from the songbook of the great female blues artists of the ‘20s, 30s & 40s: Bessie Smith, Sippie Wallace, Memphis Minnie, Billie Holiday, Rosetta Tharpe, and others.
At 7 pm, the Norwich Bookstore hosts an online reading and discussion by cartoonist Jeff Danziger, who splits his time between NYC and Dummerston. He'll be reading and talking about Lieutenant Dangerous, his memoir of his time in the Vietnam War published by the Upper Valley's own Steerforth Press.
We asked the captain what course
of action he proposed to take toward
a beast so large, terrifying, and
unpredictable. He hesitated to
answer, and then said judiciously,
"I think I shall praise it."
— by Robert Hass, an epigraph to the first section of his 1979 volume of poems,
Praise
.
See you tomorrow.
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?
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom 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! You can subscribe at:
Thank you!