GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Snow through the day, winding down this evening. It could get interesting out there, as the clipper system that's bringing us maybe two or three inches all told (higher amounts west and in the mountains) is also going to contain a renewed arctic front that could produce the occasional squall. Temps today will warm into the low 30s, but we're also going to see wind gusts into the 30 mph range. We'll be back down into single digits by morning. Here are the expected snow total maps for VT and for NH.By Moose—a moose. Who wandered into Anna Hutton's yard by the base of the aptly named Hanover mountain and posed picturesquely. "I was just making some headway with work but all that is over now," Anna writes.We may get snow squalls today, but we definitely did yesterday. One arrived as naturalist Ted Levin was out for his early walk: "a smokelike assault driven by a restless, relentless wind. Blinding, stinging, whipping across the meadow and between the solemn pine trunks.... My German shepherd looks like an Arctic wolf; everything's white, from nose to tail," he writes on his Substack. "Within a half hour, my neighborhood morphed from mid-Vermont to Greenland, from 2025 to the Pleistocene ... and back again—an ephemeral conspiracy of wind and snow."In towns around Lake Sunapee, septic ordinances are all the rage. Since 2023, reports the VN's Clare Shanahan, Sunapee, Springfield, and New London have all passed measures requiring residents to get their septic tanks pumped out at least every three years. Newbury is considering a similar measure next month. “It’s pretty straightforward what we’re trying to achieve; we’re trying to reduce the nutrients that are entering our waterway,” Elizabeth Harper, director of the Lake Sunapee Protective Association, tells Shanahan—who details the similarities and differences among towns.Sometime in the Upper Valley's future: a full-time professional orchestra? That's the dream of John Masko, anyway. Conductor of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra in Brockton, MA, and an assistant conductor at several big-city symphonies, he moved to Lebanon not long ago and, writes Susan Apel in Artful, has set out to create one here. "Many have told me that while they love the high-quality musical offerings available in the Upper Valley already, they find those offerings too infrequent...and too lacking in larger-ensemble offerings," he tells her. He's now looking for volunteers to help.SPONSORED: Cantabile presents "Night and Day". Come in out of the cold and cozy up for an afternoon of stirring choral music written for treble voices! Join Cantabile on Saturday, February 1 at 3pm at the Norwich Congregational Church and on Sunday, February 2 at 3pm at the First Congregational Church of Lebanon.. The program features works by Sergei Rachmaninoff, Antonio Vivaldi, Irving Berlin, and Gwyneth Walker. Night and Day performances are ticketless (suggested donation $15). Sponsored by Cantabile.Somewhere in Windsor County, a backyard chicken flock got bird flu. VT state ag officials reported yesterday that 20 birds tested positive last week for H5N1 bird flu (also known as highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI). It's the fifth instance in a domestic flock in the state since 2022. The flock was quarantined and then "depopulated" last week, the ag agency says. It's gotten no other reports of bird illness in the state. "Though HPAI is considered to be low risk to human health," officials say, people who came in contact with the birds are being monitored by the state health department.Proposed school budgets rise with insurance costs, wage increases. As the VN starts looking at town meeting and budgets, the story's pretty much the same in Hartford and in Hanover/Norwich/Dresden.
As Christina Dolan reports, Hartford's education tax rate will actually drop, but its proposed schools budget is 8 percent higher than the current year's, thanks mostly to a $2.2 million increase in district salaries and benefits, and a $1.2 million increase in building costs. The town budget going before voters foresees a 4.71 percent increase from the current year (with a tax increase of about $150 on a $250K home, if you can find one)—it's driven mostly by wage and health insurance increases, despite a variety of other cuts.
Meanwhile, Dresden is looking at a small budget increase (about 2 percent, if all warrant articles pass, including a bid to fund a middle school athletics program), though taxpayers will be on the hook for a 4 percent increase due to an expected drop in tuition revenues and state funding. Hanover's school board is proposing a 5 percent increase in the Ray School budget (including warrant articles) and Norwich's a 4 percent rise, though revenues are expected to grow 6 percent. Emma Roth-Wells covers the details for all three districts.
The Cog: from wood to coal to oil to diesel to biodiesel to... electrons? The railway to the top of Mt. Washington has burned its way through a lot of substances over its 156 years. Now, writes David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog, it's aiming for a battery-operated train. In theory, Brooks notes, it makes sense "because batteries can use regenerative brakes to recoup much of the power when crawling back down the mountain." But in practice, there are challenges: Among other things, railway engineer Caleb Gross has had to design an entirely new locomotive; repurposing won't do.Over five years, NH sees threefold jump in million-dollar homes. In all, reports the Monitor's Michaela Towfighi (here via NHPR), 301 homes sold for over $1 million in 2019. Last year? 994. "Inventory is low, prices have continued to climb, therefore we’re reaching that threshold pretty quickly,” says the president of the state realtors association. “Years ago that was very rare.” Not surprisingly, a lot of the surge has been for lakefront homes, though Towfighi details others: a 27.5-acre farm in Loudon, a historic home in Hopkinton with a view of Mt. Kearsarge, a Concord home a realtor likens to a "private resort."NH sees spike in kids with lead poisoning. The new report from the state health department found 1,142 children with blood lead levels high enough "to harm their ability to think, learn, and concentrate. That was 342 more children who were poisoned compared to the year prior," reports Amanda Gokee in the Globe's Morning Report (no paywall). A state spokesperson attributes the jump to increased testing as testing returns to pre-pandemic levels. An attorney at the Conservation Law Foundation says more testing can't account for all the jump, and that the state needs to pay more attention to older rental units.In both NH and VT, officials and nonprofits scramble in face of proposed federal grant freeze. Late yesterday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's Monday night order freezing "all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all federal financial assistance” while it reviews "the use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies." But at the state level, confusion and alarm linger.
“As you might imagine, emails are flying back and forth between our state and federal friends,” NH ag commissioner Shawn Jasper, tells NH Bulletin. “Everyone is trying to figure out what the order means, but no one really understand(s) the potential impacts yet.” Waypoint, the Manchester-based nonprofit that relies on federal assistance for its work with families, reports it's already had trouble getting reimbursed for January expenses. State departments tell Bulletin reporters they're still waiting for clarity.
VT AG Charity Clark, meanwhile, has joined up with a multi-state lawsuit aimed at stopping the freeze, while other state officials say they're still trying to understand the potential impact, reports VTDigger's Emma Cotton. In a statement, Amanda Wheeler, a spokesperson for the governor, said his staff was “still collecting information and understanding how this change will impact Vermont.” Cotton details what's known so far.
In VT, Phil Scott lays out $9 billion budget proposal. That includes $13.5 million in tax cuts, reports VT Public's Lola Duffort, but spending $77 million in one-time money to protect Vermonters from an expected 5.9 percent school-tax increase—and axing the state's universal school meals program. But with new spending initiatives—boosting the child tax credit, money for housing and "affordability" and public safety—the budget would grow about 5 percent, Duffort notes. She sketches the governor's plans.How VT pays for schools will change. So prep yourself by understanding how things work now. Scott's big proposal for district consolidation and a funding overhaul is scant on details at the moment, but it will command a lot of the legislature's time this session. So VTDigger has just gone up with a guide to the current "notoriously complicated and totally unique" funding system. It starts with individual school budgets and pooled-then-redistributed property taxes. But then of course there's the yield bill. And the common level of appraisal. Just for a cheat sheet on the cheat sheet, here's VT Public's glossary of terms.I’m ready. Out of a staggering 11,000 entries, judges have chosen the winners in the Close-up Photographer of the Year competition. Zooming w-a-a-a-y in reveals chilling details and lets us into a hidden natural world. There are plenty of gems among the top 100: the tangled limbs of Pedro Jarque Krebbs’ “Wallaby Baby,” the indecipherable arachnids in Artur Tomaszek’s “Crazy in Love,” the space creature in Barry Webb’s “Lamproderma on Holly Spike” (in the delightful Fungi & Slime Moulds category). Svetlana Ivanenko was the overall winner for her photo of stag beetles duking it out, “Clash of the Titans.”When it comes to alpacas, we're on the map! Well, strictly speaking, the entire US is on Brilliant Maps' look at alpaca population by county. The highest densities are out west (Jefferson County, OR leads with 3,615 of them, at least in 2022, the latest figures available), though unexpectedly, Worcester County, MA is in the top 10 (with 792). But if you look carefully, Windsor County stands out around here for being a deeper blue (denoting alpaca bulk) than a good bit of the rest of New England.
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!
Jack teaches higher education leadership and is the inaugural director of Boston University's center for supporting first-gen students. He'll be talking about "the aftermath of the recent Affirmative Action ruling and inequities in higher education for first generation students." 5 pm in Filene Auditorium, as well as online.
Watson, who grew up in Hanover (his family once owned Lou's), also voiced Charlie Brown in three animated films. But he's been running Keene’s solid waste program for over three decades, so he knows trash, what it tells us about ourselves, and the characters dumps attract. He'll be talking about his new memoir with old friend Lisa Gardner. 7 pm.
Tommy Hyde's documentary, filmed over the course of a decade, is about Vermont dairy farmer Doug Butler and his quixotic bid, despite the growing struggles his farm—the last on a road that once had 13 of them—faces, to head to Alaska with his dogs (he had 22 of them) to race them. 7 pm. No charge, but you'll need to register.
Well heck, everyone else is watching it, we might as well, too...
You've probably heard about Questlove's new documentary,
Ladies & Gentlemen...50 Years of SNL Music
. Well, to lead it off he and an unbelievably talented film editor (the coordinating producer of
The Tonight Show
) created a six-minute mix—and seamlessly flowing set of mashups—of SNL musical moments. It's a work of art in itself. Questlove's one regret: He wanted to do a Luciano Pavarotti-Bobby McFerrin-Busta Rhymes mashup, but the Pavarotti estate wouldn't give permission. Oh well. But the rest is pretty good.
, and
.
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!