A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
A day much like yesterday. Mostly cloudy, maybe some sky—if there's going to be a break in the clouds, looks like we're in the favored spot—and temps into the mid-30s. Down tonight into the lower 20s. Not much wind to speak of, but what there is will come from the southwest.Yeah, those spirals... JoAnn Berns was out skating on Lake Fairlee a bit ago and came upon this remarkable... I don't even know what you'd call it, except maybe "natural art."Speaking of spirals, those snow wheels yesterday? (Or as astute reader DM suggests, "snow tires"...) Turns out they're "snow doughnuts." And wouldn't you know it, naturalist Mary Holland had an explanation a few years back. They "require a precise balance of air temperature, ice, snow, moisture and wind in order to form," she writes, starting with a ground surface (which can even be flat, unlike the tree trunk that produced yesterday's) with icy, crusty snow, on which new snow cannot stick. (Thanks, JG!) And speaking of skating... The skating on Fairlee is reportedly excellent, and a trail on Mascoma Lake has been newly plowed for skating by the Nordic Skater's Ben Prime. On Lake Morey, the Resort says there's still some open water and the trail there isn't open yet. As always, use caution wherever you are. (Thanks BW and HH!)Norwich, Hanover facing school tax increases. Though they're hardly equivalent, reports the Valley News's Tim Camerato. Norwich could see a 13 percent increase in its school tax rate—$920 on a home valued at $400,000 for those not covered by VT's income sensitivity program—while Hanover faces a 0.4 percent bump. Norwich's much larger liability stems in part from a growing proportion of students it's responsible for across the river, and in part from a change in how much it owes VT's education fund. Overall, the proposed Dresden budget grows while the Marion Cross budget drops slightly. SPONSORED: The Hopkins Center invites the Upper Valley community to a powerful keynote experience by Dr. Shamell Bell as part of Dartmouth’s celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy, on Monday, January 18 at 7:30pm. Dr. Bell is a mother, community organizer, choreographer, filmmaker and original Black Lives Matter member. Through discussion and physical exploration, she guides us in a moving exercise of reflecting, breathing, and gathering freedom dreams together. Free on the Hop’s Youtube channel. All are welcome! Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth.
New London Hospital says: Wrong numbers! Yesterday's item on vaccination percentages in the Concord Monitor said the hospital had administered just 38 percent of its doses. "This is incorrect," emails community relations director Kathleen Kennedy. "We have ordered 310 doses, as allocated by the state. Some vials contained extra doses, totaling 16, which we have used with no waste. 310+16=326. As of the end of the day on Jan. 8, we administered 266 out 326 = 81.6 percent. We have more clinics this week."Claremont feeling pressure from cases. “I anticipate a rough January and February,” Dr. Jocelyn Caple, Valley Regional Hospital's interim CEO, tells the VN's Nora Doyle-Burr in an email. And it's not just the hospitals. One dental clinic has shut down for all but emergencies. Restaurants have gone takeout-only, while some businesses have moved to curbside. City Manager Ed Morris puts it bluntly: “Stay home as much as possible." Doyle-Burr also reports an outbreak at Sullivan County Health Care in Unity, and that four employees of Kendal at Hanover have also tested positive.Facing NH legislature's delay on postponing town meeting, towns plan for in-person gatherings. The Lebanon School District and the town of Grafton have already scheduled in-person deliberative sessions, reports Tim Camerato in the VN, and Canaan and the Mascoma Valley district will probably do so, as well. The state does allow for remote meeting, but many communities report they're finding that unworkable. The NH Senate last week passed a measure letting towns delay sessions, but the House has stalled it, which means it may come too late for some towns with deliberative sessions later this month. NH advocates sue state for placing needy residents in long-term care facilities instead of delivering in-home services. The suit, filed Monday, focuses on a Medicaid waiver program known as Choices for Independence, which the state can use to keep Medicaid recipients who need help with personal needs at home. Instead, reports NH Bar News's Scott Merrill (via the Concord Monitor), the suit alleges that the state has underfunded service providers, leading to some people being placed in nursing homes when they could otherwise remain home. “Who orders bananas through the mail?” As you know, it's been a crazy year for USPS, FedEx, and UPS employees—"like Christmastime without the good cheer,” a contract postal worker tells VTDigger's Amanda Gokee. Gokee talks to the people on the front lines about what it's been like. One mail carrier who worked 21 days straight in December tells her that 15 percent of the workforce has been out with Covid issues: “It’s been a pretty brutal year for a lot of people," he says. Adds another, “It just feels never-ending."VT's rising caseload part of a Christmas surge. At a press conference yesterday, the state's numbers czar, financial regulation commissioner Michael Pieciak, noted, "Comparing [Christmas] to two previous holidays—Halloween, where we did experience a surge in cases, and Thanksgiving, where we did not see a surge—you’ll see that that 10- to 17-day period following Christmas is tracking very closely to Halloween." The state's latest forecast says VT may hit 300 cases a day by early February, reports VTDigger's Erin Petenko. VT House overwhelmingly passes town meeting changes. In a 142-2 vote yesterday afternoon, legislators opted to let towns push back the date of town meeting until spring, so that it can be held outdoors, and to give them the option of holding elections by mail. (Last week, legislators set aside $2 million to help towns cover the cost of mailing ballots.) The new town meeting legislation now goes to the state Senate, where it's expected to pass. It may get to Gov. Phil Scott's desk by the end of the week, reports VTDigger's Xander Landen. Mirroring national GOP strains, legislators press VT party leaders to condemn president or resign. In a statement last week condemning the violence at the US Capitol, GOP chair Deb Billado and other state party leaders made no mention of President Trump's role or call for his removal. And that has angered Republican legislators who believe the party's leaders ought to have gone further. "My goal right now is to get them to resign,” state Rep. Scott Beck of St. J tells Seven Days' Kevin McCallum, “and I’m having conversations with other legislators to put together a common voice.” "We want to be like Krispy Kreme, but we want it to not be so bad for you." That's Ed McClain, who with his wife, Erica, runs Hangry the Donut Bar in St. Albans—and delivers to the St. Albans Park & Ride. If you happen to be headed north, Seven Days' Jordan Barry and Melissa Pasanen profile Hangry and two other new doughnut spots: Kru Coffee in Burlington and Local Donut in Woodbury. These are not your basic Krispy Kreme. "I know it's a doughnut, but I want it to be memorable," says Local Donut's Nate Doyon. Word of warning: Don't read this when you're hungry. Or hangry."You've got your basic silver package, 100 per month, that's basically just me holding a biscuit under your nose on a treadmill." Sportscaster Andrew Cotter's dogs Olive & Mabel consider the options for the new home gym he's created for them...
Dartmouth has 21 active cases among students (down 2) and 2 among faculty/staff. In the meantime, 17 students and 8 faculty/staff are in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 25 students and 9 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
NH added 842 new cases yesterday and now stands at 53,148 total. There were 9 new deaths, which now stand at 878 total, and 287 people are hospitalized (up 20). The current active caseload stands at 6,239 (up 121); 87 percent of all cases have recovered. Grafton County is at 196 active cases (up 4), Sullivan has 192 (down 11), and Merrimack has 596 (down 22). Town by town, the state says that Claremont has 86 active cases (down 13), Newport has 33 (down 3), Charlestown has 26 (up 4), Hanover has 22 (down 1), Lebanon has 17 (down 4), New London has 16 (up 2), Enfield has 10 (no change), Canaan has 8 (down 1), Grantham has 7 (down 2), Newbury has 7 (no change), Sunapee has 7 (no change), Cornish has 7 (no change), Haverhill has 6 (up 1), Unity has 5 (no change), and Wentworth has 5 (down 1). Rumney, Orford, Lyme, Plainfield, Croydon, Goshen, and Grafton all have 1-4 each. Piermont is off the list.
VT reported 167 new cases yesterday, bringing its total case count to 9,247. It now has 2,863 active cases (down 32) with 67.3 percent of all cases recovered. There were two new deaths, bringing the total to 158, while 51 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 4). Windsor County gained 20 cases to stand at 598 for the pandemic (with 212 over the past 14 days). Orange County had 3 new cases and is now at 368 cumulatively (with 56 cases over the past 14 days).
News that connects you. If you like Daybreak and want to help it keep going, here's how:
Today at 12:30, the Hood continues its series looking at public art on the Dartmouth campus. The Hood's Amelia Kahl and Hélène Gillette-Woodard of the Williamstown + Atlanta Art Conservation Center in Williamstown, MA, will talk about Thel, Beverly Pepper's steel and grass sculpture just off College Street.
At 5 pm, Dartmouth's Rockefeller hosts its first panel of the new term, "Standing Alone: Why the U.S. Rejects Global Norms on Women’s Rights." Moderated by government professor Lisa Baldez, it brings together political scientist Jennifer Piscopo of Occidental College and sociologist Julie Suk of CUNY to discuss the US's abstention from global standards such as the UN treaty on women's rights, constitutional guarantees of equality, and gender quotas for women running for political office.
This evening at 7, Montpelier's Kellogg-Hubbard Library hosts a League of Women Voters discussion on "Policing and Mental Health." It includes Montpelier Police Chief Brian Peete; A.J. Ruben, who's a supervising attorney at Disability Rights Vermont, and Karim Chapman of Psychiatric Survivors, talking about how police interact with people in a mental health crisis.
Also at 7, the Vermont Land Trust is hosting a webinar on "Hunting and Land Stewardship." Though its geographic focus is the Champlain Islands, panelists—including Dan Kilborn, a VLT forester; Matt Breton of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers; and VT Fish & Wildlife biologist Andrea Shortsleeve—will be talking more generally about the history and influence of hunting on forest ecology.
And anytime... Ever since this summer, Dartmouth has been filming faculty members talking about their areas of expertise—from historian Matthew Delmont on Juneteenth, to physicist and astronomer Ryan Hickox on a "cataclysmic" collision in deep space, to historian Anneliese Orleck on the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, to political scientist John Carey on last week's violence at the US Capitol. They're short, snappy, and always compelling.
Here's a local musician, Bethel's Spencer Lewis, a couple of years back: creating layers of melody as he loops both guitar and violin
(Thanks, PN!)
See you tomorrow.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music? Check out the Spotify playlist generously maintained by Sarah and Nelson Rooker.
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!