GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
A calm day. But that ends overnight. Let's enjoy today, though: After a cold start, temps will rise into the mid 20s under a mix of sun and clouds—at least, until late afternoon, when more clouds build in ahead of the storm that moves in tonight. Winds today will be light, and overnight lows will only be in the mid or upper teens. Snow starts up sometime this evening or tonight. It's just the start of what the weather folks call "a very complex" system—hate it when they say that—but for tonight, anyway, it's all snow, an inch or two by morning.Icicles every which way.
You've got your wind-blown icicles hanging from the powerhouse at the Union Village Dam in Thetford, from Sally Duston, who notes they look "like an old rug fringe";
And your "icy grapevine" from Tony Palazzo in Lebanon;
And Herb Detrick's icicle contrivance in Post Mills, which he calls, "When your VT neighbor puts up a high-rise that blocks your view."
With an eye toward lightening the police load, Hartford PD hosts first data meeting. In big cities, what are known as "CompStat" meetings are aimed at finding crime trends and hot spots and holding precinct commanders accountable for addressing them. But at yesterday's first HartStat meeting, the focus was on the department's effort to enlist the help of local social service agencies to address people and problems they're better equipped to help than police officers: Most calls for service, reports Matt Golec for Daybreak, involve non-criminal issues. Matt was there, and reports on how things went.Hartford announces police department veteran will become new chief. Yesterday's HartStat meeting was the initiative of current chief Gregory Sheldon—who's leaving at the end of the month. Yesterday, town manager John Haverstock announced that Lt. Commander Constance "Connie" Kelley, who's been on the force for 26 years, was acting chief before Sheldon was hired a year ago, and most recently has headed up its patrol division, will take over as permanent chief. Her swearing-in will be on March 3 at Town Hall.SPONSORED: Sunrise Farm CSA—Sign up now for fresh vegetables all summer! CSA shares are available at Sunrise Farm in White River Junction, just a mile from the UVAC/VA. You choose your veggies, your pickup day (Tuesdays or Thursdays), and your end date (October or November.) Starts May 13th. Includes pick-your own flowers and herbs, and the farmstand features our own eggs and chicken plus lots of offerings from other local farms. Sponsored by Sunrise Farm.Dartmouth protesters sentenced to community service in trespassing case. Roan Wade and Kevin Engel, who were arrested in October, 2023 during a pro-Palestine demonstration outside a Dartmouth administration building, were sentenced by Lebanon Circuit Court Judge Michael Mace yesterday to complete 20 hours of community service each at LISTEN Community Services, reports the Valley News's Clare Shanahan. They were also given suspended fines of $310—on condition that they maintain good behavior for one year.Hanover prosecutors decide not to move forward with underage-drinking charges against Dartmouth sorority. The initial charge against the Alpha Phi sorority grew out of the drowning death last summer of Dartmouth student Won Jang, who'd attended a party the sorority held jointly with the Beta Alpha Omega fraternity. Police have charged two members of that fraternity with providing alcohol to minors. In The Dartmouth, Annabelle Zhang reports that the sorority still faces suspension through this fall, followed by "alcohol probation" through next summer and loss of access to its house for a year.SPONSORED: Opening night approaches for OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder, featuring live covers of songs by Noah Kahan. The Chandler's stunning new vision of America's greatest play includes the music of Grammy-nominee Noah Kahan, performed by a live band and sung by the cast. This you've just got to witness — ideally on opening night Friday, Feb. 28th. OUR TOWN runs through Sunday, March 9, at the Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph, VT. Follow @ourtownrandolph on Facebook and Instagram, and grab tickets at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by OUR TOWN.Norwich voters to decide: Can non-residents serve on town boards and commissions? That's one of the questions on next month's town meeting warrant, writes Emma Roth-Wells in the VN, thanks to a 3-2 selectboard vote last month. The town has multiple unfilled board vacancies, and a 2022 VT law allows municipalities to invite non-residents to serve. Still, the measure drew fierce opposition from one selectboard member. “I find this whole article abhorrent,” Priscilla Vincent said at a late-January meeting. “I don’t see why we want somebody from outside of Norwich to be elected to a Norwich position."Gun scare leads to possible expulsion, charges for Claremont students. "Multiple Upper Valley police departments, along with state police and sheriffs, descended upon Stevens High shortly before 1 p.m. [yesterday] after a student reported to administrators that 'they had seen a Snapchat post showing four...students with a gun inside the school,'" reports John Lippman in the VN. During a sweep, police found four students with “a realistic-looking fake handgun of some kind." In email to parents, SAU 6 Superintendent Chris Pratt wrote they'll be brought up for expulsion and may face criminal charges.Learning how to "lean into the gnawing feeling of actually wanting to live." At the start of Alison Espach's new novel, her protagonist checks into a fancy Newport, RI hotel for one night as she plans her own demise. But as Quechee and Wilder Libraries director Michaela Lavelle writes—making her Enthusiasms debut—it turns out that she's the only guest who's not there for a six-day wedding extravaganza. And the bride-to-be is having none of her plans. The Wedding People could have "wilt[ed] into oversimplification," Michaela writes, but it doesn't—though it does offer hope in a cold, dark month.As storms keep arriving, Susan Apel's looking for green. Or reminders of spring, anyway. "Not a winter person," she writes in her latest Artful post. Fortunately for her, she's found just what she's looking for in two spots. The first is at the Kilton library in West Leb, where among Cindy Heath's "lovely collection" of fabric art she keeps returning to "the colors and textures of her 'In the Garden'. Put me in a David Hockney mood." The second is at Gardener's Supply, which is offering a couple of upcoming plant-forward workshops.You won't believe this: That Cog Railway LEGO model? There are more. I got the greatest email after yesterday's Cog item. Tim Lewis (whose name you might recognize: He spent three decades at WDEV and WCAX) is amassing a "memoir" of the Cog and, above all, the people who've worked there, including his father. At the link, he points out the Cog's Upper Valley connections (it's not just Dartmouth grad Henry N. Teague, who ran it for decades), details previous LEGO Cog models, and hopes for help identifying people who've worked the Cog since 1866: So far, he's got over 3,000. Here's his sprawling Cog history.NH legislator's bid to drop arts, civics, and other classes draws 30,000 objections from the public. Yesterday, Epsom GOP Rep. Dan McGuire testified to the House that his bill—which would drop those subjects, as well as world languages, personal finance literacy, and more from the list of subjects public schools must teach—is aimed at focusing attention on math, reading, and science, where he believes NH students underperform. In response, reports Amanda Gokee in the Globe's Morning Report, more than 30K people weighed in against the bill. As of yesterday morning, 71 had supported it.Coming down the pike in the NH House: bipartisan support for overriding local zoning codes. The reason, of course, is the state's housing shortage. In NH Bulletin, Ethan DeWitt looks at three key efforts "to take on municipalities directly": one is an effort to require towns to allow ADUs without imposing restrictions they wouldn't impose on a single-family home; another would take on what GOP Rep. Joe Alexander calls "snob zoning" by tying lot size restrictions to water and sewer capacity; and a third would allow multi-use developments "by right" in commercial zones.A tool for tracking VT legislators' occupations, volunteer roles—and maybe potential conflicts of interest. In truth, the information that this session's crop of legislators provided on their 2025 ethics and 2024 campaign disclosure forms is only as specific as they wanted it to be. But it's now easily findable, senator by senator and state rep by state rep, thanks to a new tool from VTDigger. Find the legislator you're interested in and you can click over to a PDF of the forms they were required to file, which give a sense of how they earn a living, boards they sit on, companies they own, and the like.Over in western VT, state officials say hay wagons violate state billboard law. Actually, it's not the wagons themselves, but the signs that Westport, NY farmer and farm-tire shop owner Raymond Rice has zip-tied to them—up and down roads in the Champlain Valley. He's just a small-business man trying to make a living by providing tires other farmers need at a decent price, he tells Seven Days' Kevin McCallum. But the signs clearly violate VT's 1968 billboard law, a state attorney says, since they're not on Rice's property. "Here are signs in Vermont for a business in New York," he says. "It's really that simple."Out in the wild. The five winning photos in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Awards are out, and each one is a gem. A lot of people voted—some 76,000. The winner, with great good timing and irony, is Ian Wood’s portrait of a well-placed badger in St Leonards-on-Sea, England. Outside Vancouver, Canada, it took ten nights for Jess Findlay to get the perfect shot of a barn owl setting out for the evening’s hunt. And no, they didn’t forget to upload a photo: You need a sharp eye to spot Michel d’Oultremont’s pure-white stoat against a snow-white landscape in Belgium.
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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!
. Reece studied writing with Annie Dillard in college, moved on to become a Brooks Brothers sales associate, then got his divinity degree, worked with orphans in Honduras, was national secretary to the Episcopal bishop of Spain... and became a poet whose first collection was chosen for the Bakeless Poetry Prize by Louise Glück. He'll be reading from his new work,
Acts
, at Wheelock House in Hanover at 5 pm. Appetizers from My Brigadeiro, a live letterpress demonstration, and a chance to meet and talk with the poet after the reading.
It's the carnival's 109th season, and things officially start up at 5 pm with the opening ceremonies and then a packed schedule of events through Sunday, with everything from music and line dancing to Ski Day at Mt. Sunapee and midnight skating on the Newport Common. Schedule at the link,
Latham's
The Ones "
is an unflinching exploration of love, loss, and the myriad ways our past relationships shape us"; Bonina's
Lunch in Chinatown
reflects her work with immigrants and refugees—"a poignant exploration of valued human connections, understanding, and shared humanity in the face of cultural and linguistic differences." 7 pm.
The White River Indie Film Festival gets going in earnest tomorrow, but tonight's a kickoff fundraiser for JAM with headliner Paul Ollinger, fresh off of headlining the NYC Comedy Festival, along with Ian Levy, Rufat Agayev, and Shaunak Godkhindi, and Ali Reza Punjani emceeing. 7:30 pm.
. Improvisational comedy, right here in the Upper Valley! 8 pm.
And to propel us into the day...
Annie Caldwell—who, when she isn't touring with her family gospel band, runs a dress shop in West Point, Mississippi—starts things off with her daughter, Deborah, who then strides out onto a West Point street, ambles through town... and eventually finds her way to her sisters, brothers, and father. The Caldwells have been going strong for 30-some years—ever since Annie heard her daughters sing at a talent show. “They were really good," she once told a reporter. "I said, ‘Let me get them before the devil gets them.'”
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.
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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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