A PLEASURE TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Well, now that that's done... Around here, anyway, though the northern Greens, especially, are due more. In these parts there's a slight chance of snow showers all day, though no real accumulation. Otherwise, it'll be cloudy, highs maybe reaching 30, winds from the northwest. Low 20s tonight.Next stop, Enfield ice airport... On Saturday afternoon, Enfield's Geoff Parker was out watching planes with aircraft skis practice approaches over a frozen Mascoma Lake, though they never touched down. He caught this cool shot—though you can't see the skis, they're there. No throwing please, this is art. Inspired by the snow and ice sculptures of "land artist" Andy Goldsworthy, Norwich's Janet Hardy spent a lot of time packing snowballs yesterday, then found them a friendly quiver of birches.Hanover, Lebanon look to boost renewables, lower electricity costs for residents through community power coalition. In an effort to develop enough market strength to sidestep the traditional utilities, the two towns are trying to jump-start a group of NH towns that would buy electricity in bulk, the Valley News's Tim Camerato reports. The Hanover Selectboard last week voted to go ahead, and the Leb City Council will take it up tonight. The towns are hoping the move will allow them to cut costs for ratepayers and to exercise more control over where their electricity comes from.Dartmouth announces in-person graduation in June, with limits. In emails to the college community yesterday, President Phil Hanlon said that attendance will be restricted to this year's graduating students, and that the in-person ceremony that had been planned for the Class of 2020 will be postponed indefinitely. The decision not to allow family or friends, he wrote, was the "most painful" of the changes the college is making. Dartmouth is also advising guests of graduates to cancel travel plans to the Upper Valley, report The Dartmouth's Caitlin McCarthy and Madeleine Bernardeau."His legacy will be a strong, capable and caring department." In a public show of collegial support, Hartford's department heads have a column in the VN detailing why they believe departing Police Chief Phil Kasten has improved policing in the town. "We have observed Chief Kasten demonstrate commendable leadership under extremely tense circumstances, time and time again," they write, citing his and his officers' handling of mental-health crises and life-threatening situations, his efforts to push his and other departments to improve their fair and impartial policing, domestic violence, and use-of-force policies, and the de-escalation training he brought to the department.SPONSORED: Why hand your nest egg over to Wall Street? Instead, you can reap returns by putting it to work here in the Upper Valley—creating jobs, services, amenities, and products that make this region more self-sufficient and resilient to global shocks. Learn why and how in “Put Your Money Where Your Life Is: Reclaiming Our Local Economy,” a series of discussions and workshops starting Tuesday, Feb. 23, sponsored by Vital Communities and TLC Monadnock. Information and registration at the maroon link. Sponsored by Vital Communities. VLS lands $3 million restorative justice grant. The federal money will go to the law school's National Center on Restorative Justice, which is focused on providing training and advocating for criminal justice practices focused on direct reconciliation with victims and the larger community. The center was founded last year, reports Seven Days' Chelsea Edgar, with a similar grant spearheaded by US Sen. Patrick Leahy. "It’s still unclear," she writes, "how the center will be integrated into Vermont Law School’s existing offerings."DHMC lands $2.5 million workforce development grant. The federal money will help the hospital work with other organizations to train prospective employees, creating a workforce pipeline, and to further the education of existing employees. Its goal, reports the Union Leader's Damien Fisher, is to address a chronic workforce shortage that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. "Dartmouth-Hitchcock had more open positions than employees before the start of the pandemic. The employee storage has continued, and is likely to get worse if something isn’t done," Fisher writes. (Paywall)"It seems like it's a little more raw fun." That's Bruce Lingelbach, who with his wife Cindy Pierce runs Pierce's Inn in Etna, talking about the ski hill behind the inn. Lord's Hill was a family-run, well-used hill from the '40s to the '80s, then fell into disuse. As a senior film project at KUA, Pierce and Lingelbach's son, Colter (who also spent winter break grooming trails at Whaleback), put together a four-minute documentary on what was really just a skiable backyard when he was growing up—until he and his family began cutting trees, widening the old trails, and starting to dream about maybe one day bringing back a rope tow.Some restaurants go into winter hibernation as a way to stay alive. "Closing for a few months during the cold, harsh pandemic winter is a way to save money—cutting inventory, payroll, utilities and other variable operating costs," write Seven Days' Jordan Barry and Melissa Pasanen. They profile three restaurants, including St. J's Pica-pica Filipino Cuisine (though owner George Sales is letting popup taco joint Nacho Mama move in for five weeks) that are sitting out the next few months. Also, Hill Farmstead, which is taking "a sabbatical, of sorts."VT's OneCare gets a boost—by executive fiat. The Scott administration on Monday announced that it's cut a deal with Blue Cross Blue Shield of VT to include about 13,000 of the state's employees in OneCare this year. The goal is to boost the chances that the accountable care organization can lower costs and improve quality, report VTDigger's Kit Norton and Katie Jickling. The state employees' association, which resisted joining OneCare in 2019, hasn't weighed in yet—and isn't sure it can bargain over the issue to begin with. "VURR-shurr." That's Vershire on the Vermont-town pronunciation guide that VPR is creating as it crowdsources "an audio guide to all of Vermont's hard-to-pronounce town and city names." It's asking the public to weigh in, via voice memo, and has a spreadsheet that's displaying the info. There are still plenty of towns missing, but lots already there. The "Al" in Alburgh, for instance, rhymes with "pal," not "pall." And Barre, the guide says, should sound like "Mary," not "Barry." Oh, and Groton's "GRAW-tin," not "GROTT-in." Here's guessing there's fodder for years of dinner-table debate in there.Now, this is long-term parking. Emmanuel Capitaine, who lives in Williston, flew out of Montreal to visit France back in early March—just before the border slammed shut. He eventually got home through Boston, but his car is stuck in Montreal. Airport officials assure him the car is still there—they even send photos from time to time—but the best they can do is recommend he have it towed to the border... But, "I’m not going to say, ‘Hey, you see that car on the other side of the border? That’s mine — can I get it?’ It’s not going to work,” he tells Seven Days' Sasha Goldstein, who has the whole sad story.Here's one way to know you've been gone from the office a long time: find a nest with 20,000 bees and 10 gallons of honey when you drop by. “We were talking a lot as an executive team about how and when to bring people back to the office and how to make sure it’s safe,” says the chief marketing officer for Invoca, a Santa Barbara AI company. “It never occurred to me to think of bees.” As Quartz's Sarah Todd writes, "It never does."
You've gotta figure that wherever he is, Snowflake Bentley is smiling. Nathan Myhrvold used to be the chief technology officer at Microsoft, but these days he's made a name for himself as the creator of what he calls the “highest resolution snowflake camera in the world.” Or, more precisely, as the photographer of the highest-res snowflake photos ever taken, down to the microscopic level. He's just released some of those pics. Smithsonian's Jennifer Nalewicki describes how he got them. (Thanks, ED & FM!)
And the numbers...
Dartmouth reports 8 active cases among students(down 2) and 5 among faculty and staff (down 2). In the meantime, 13 students and 5 faculty/staff are in quarantine because of travel or exposure, while 8 students and 20 faculty/staff are in isolation awaiting results or because they tested positive.
NH reported 328 new cases yesterday for a cumulative total of 66,384. There were 7 new deaths, bringing the total to 1,066. Meanwhile, 202 people are hospitalized (up 9). The current active caseload stands at 4,222 (down 440). The state did not update its county or town numbers yesterday, so they remain the same as Monday's: 208 active cases in Grafton County, 178 in Sullivan, and 389 in Merrimack.
VT reported 108 new cases yesterday, bringing it to a total case count of 12,196. There was 1 new death, which now number 176 all told, while 54 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (down 6). Windsor County gained 6 new cases to stand at 868 for the pandemic (with 122 over the past 14 days). Orange County had 1 new case and is now at 429 cumulatively (with 36 cases over the past 14 days).
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The Norwich Farmers Market is looking for vendors for the 2021 outdoor season (May-October). Agricultural products, prepared food items, crafts—"If you make it or grow it, we'd love to have you at market," says manager Steve Hoffman. Note: They accept only vendors from Windsor and Orange counties in VT and Grafton and Sullivan counties in NH. Application deadline is Feb. 15.
Starting at 9 am, students and faculty at UVM are holding a "teach-in" on the university's decision to eliminate three departments and a series of mostly liberal arts majors, minors, and programs. The event runs all day and includes senior lecturers who have been fired and faculty and students from the departments—Classics, Geology, and Religion—the university wants to close.
Today at 4:30, Dartmouth's Dickey Center hosts a conversation on the issue of presidential removal seen through a Latin American lens. As they note, while discussions on the issue are relatively novel in the US, they are not in Latin America. Dartmouth government prof John Carey and US Naval Academy prof John Polga-Hecimovich will talk about the controversy surrounding Latin American constitutions that permit presidential removal for "moral incapacity" and the consequences of their use.
This evening at 7, VT PBS has an online showing of United We Ski, a look at the rise and decline (and continued survival of a handful) of small, community-supported ski slopes. Hosted by Lisa Gosselin Lynn, editor of Vermont Ski + Ride and Vermont Sports mags, with a post-film discussion with VT downhill greats John Egan and Barbara Ann Cochran.
Also at 7, it's a whole host of VT Humanities First Wednesdays presentations. Meteorologist Mark Breen on humankind's search for meaning in the skies and stars, journalists David Shribman and Cindy Skrzycki on the current media landscape, father and son storytellers and musicians Joseph and Jesse Bruchac of the Nulhegan Abenaki Nation on the continued cultural heritage of the Wabanaki nations, Middlebury prof Daniel Brayton on Shakespeare and the sea, Dartmouth's Mary Coffey on the Orozco murals at the college, author Susan Clark on the "Slow Democracy" movement in which ordinary people mobilize to find local solutions to local problems...
That last talk—and the one by Joseph and Jesse Bruchac—are part of the ongoing "Good Citizen Challenge" organized by Seven Days and its monthly Kids VT magazine and funded by the VT Community Foundation. "We the people of the United States are deeply divided. What better time to focus on the American values we all share?" they believe, and have created a set of activities (most of which can be done at home) for kids and families focused on four subject areas that underlie responsible citizenry: history, government, news literacy, and community service. You can create a team, check out the activities, and learn a bunch, through March 5.
This snow, of course, is to be reveled in...but that doesn't mean we can't also travel to sunnier, more colorful spots in our imaginations. Here to help is
, somewhere in the Spanish countryside with a fine quartet—including her mom, Elisabeth Roma, on guitar—and the kind of table covered with food, wine, and coffee you'd want to hang out making music at, too.
See you tomorrow.
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