GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
High pressure's moving in, and things will be drying out this afternoon, if not before. It's likely to be showery all morning, but chances diminish as the day goes on. Mostly cloudy into the afternoon. Highs only getting into the mid-70s today. Thetford has its first town manager. She's Serena Bemis-Goodall, who's been manager in Corinna, ME, for almost five years, and worked for the VT Agency of Agriculture in the '90s. Voters decided to create the position last fall. Bemis-Goodall starts Aug. 5, and will have the added benefit of moving close to her daughter, who lives in Wilder and is due with her first child. "Vermont is calling me home," Bemis-Goodall told the VN. (VN, sub reqd)Hartford shifts approach on policing and immigrants. As you know, the town's been grappling with whether to prevent its police officers from communicating with federal law enforcement on immigration status--which would violate federal law. A working group last week decided instead to propose a "Welcoming Hartford" ordinance. Details are being worked out, but it could be modeled on a Chicago version that keeps agencies from investigating status unless required by state or federal law. (VN, sub still reqd)Vail Resorts acquires three NH ski areas, one in VT. The ski giant yesterday announced it's buying Peak Resorts, and so gaining a major share of eastern skiing to add to its portfolio out West. It already owned Stowe and Okemo. To those it's adding Attitash, Wildcat and Crotched in NH, and Mt. Snow in VT. The move, says Larry Olmstead in Forbes, gives Vail a leg up with millions of skiers in eastern and midwestern cities.Budget veto puts NH cities and towns in fiscal limbo. Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed the legislature's budget 3 weeks ago, and the state's towns and cities are trying to figure out what their finances are going to look like. There's $40 million in municipal aid that's now unavailable; same with money for highway block grants and general funding from the meals and rooms tax revenue. And let's not even talk about how they're going to set property tax rates. NH's rental vacancy rate is less than 1 percent, median gross rent has increased 20 percent in 5 years. The NH Housing Finance Authority 2019 rental cost survey offers a cold dive into the state's tight rental market. Over five years, rents in Grafton Co. have gone up 15 percent, but only 7 percent in Sullivan. Not surprisingly, the big jumps are over on the Seacoast. Vacancy rates in every county except Belknap are less than 1 percent.Undocumented workers are especially vulnerable to Border Patrol in Vermont. That's the headline in the Pacific Standard, which argues that workers in the state's dairy industry "are uniquely vulnerable due to the state's proximity to the United States–Canada border and its demographics as a near homogeneously white state." Agents can range within 100 miles of the border, which puts most dairy farms within reach. VT has four Border Patrol stations; NH, none. Thanks for the tip, LM!A Canada goose stuck in a delivery driver's car grille was rescued and is safe. There wasn't room for this yesterday, but I know you'd want to know. A Papa John's employee struck the goose, then discovered it wedged up front. "I was freaking out then because I have a live goose stuck in my car's front grate," he told WCAX. Eventually, the Burlington Fire Dept. made the extrication, and the goose made it to a wildlife rehabber in Poultney. Towns near Otter Creek in VT overrun by frogs. Northern Leopard frogs, to be precise. They lay their eggs in flooded fields, which stayed wet longer than usual this year. Then we got warm weather, and suddenly they're all ready to migrate. "Longtime residents are telling me that this exceeds all of the other emigrations that they've ever seen," says herpetologist Jim Andrews. "And people who are trying to drive the roads...are just saying it's horrible. There's no way to avoid the number of frogs that are moving across these roads."SO WHAT'S DOING TONIGHT?The Chad Hollister Trio will be on the common in Fairlee. Hollister, who grew up in Burlington, has been touring the country for decades, and this year re-released his 2017 "Stop the World" album on vinyl. "Hollister's affability could strike a chord with anyone who hews to the bright side — or needs to," Seven Days wrote when the album first came out. Starts at 6:30.Or you could go to SEED: The Untold Story. Directors Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz traveled the world for their 2016 documentary, talking to farmers, seed bankers, ethnobotanists, even Jane Goodall – all to talk about changing farming practices, seeds, their declining variety, and the challenges facing people who want to preserve them in seed banks. 6 pm at Woodstock Town Hall.Have a fine day out there. See you tomorrow.
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