GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Rain again. It's a different system from yesterday's, but the result's not far off: A front crossing the region will spread rain from west to east, possibly arriving around midday but more likely as the afternoon and evening wear on. It'll be with us through the night. Temps will be warmer today, though, getting into the low or mid 50s. Winds from the north, upper 30s tonight.Telling the owls from the trees. It's not always as easy as you'd think, as this barred owl that caught Brenda Mainer's eye in Hartland kindly demonstrates.For skiers in New Hampshire, a snow-starved winter raises the question, What now? "For people who love winter sports," writes Beatrice Burack in the introduction to a new, five-part Daybreak series on NH skiing in the age of climate change, "this has been a trying winter." And it's brought home the magnitude of the challenges faced by skiers and the industry that relies on them. Today, Bea lays out the long history of skiing in the Granite State, what climate experts say about the future, and an overview of how nordic and downhill areas are adapting. Tomorrow: the issues facing small ski hills.Dartmouth basketball players vote to unionize. Team members yesterday afternoon voted 13-2 to join SEIU Local 560. The vote's drawn national attention—it "has the potential to shift the balance of power in a multibillion-dollar sports industry," Politico wrote—but as the AP's Jimmy Golen writes, an appeal by the school and possibly the NCAA and Ivy League may delay any bargaining "until long after the current members of the basketball team have graduated." In a statement, the college said, "Classifying these students as employees simply because they play basketball is as unprecedented as it is inaccurate." Here's The Dartmouth's coverage, and the NYT's (gift link).And speaking of voting, town meeting results for VT are coming in. Locally, at least, voters did not seem to be in a send-a-message mood: town and school budgets passed. Here's a quick roundup, with links to official results or to news coverage:
In Thetford's contested selectboard race, David Forbes defeated John Piecuch;
In Strafford's two contested selectboard races, Toni Pippy defeated John Freitag, while Andrew Duncklee prevailed in a three-way contest; Hannah Levinger won an uncontested seat.
In Norwich, incumbent Mary Layton defeated two challengers, while Priscilla Vincent retained her seat unopposed;
In Woodstock, Laura Powell won the contested selectboard contest, while in Pomfret, incumbent Steve Chamberlin defeated former selectboard member Frank Perron, Jr, and in Reading, Lisa Hern Silvester won a contested seat. Those and other results from the Standard (hit "Read More" under "Key Town Meeting Results Roll In" for the rundown.)
In the hotly contested voting over whether to build a new middle/high school in Woodstock for the towns of the Mountain Views district, results won't be reported until today. In voting on the district budget, a comfortable majority of voters across the seven member towns approved the budget, though Bridgewater and Killington rejected it.
Valley News reporters covered floor meetings in Tunbridge, which opted to pay for expanded policing; Sharon, which rejected a moved to switch all voting to Australian balloting; and the Bethel-Royalton school meeting, where, as Alex Hanson writes, the calm voting results belied the "thorny" issues voters are facing as they look ahead. Links to all the VN's town meeting coverage are here.
Finally, we turn to Bethel, where the Wildcat Cheerleaders of Bethel Youth Sports, who are 2nd-5th graders, revved up the town meeting crowd as events got underway: here's a VT Public video ("3, 5, 7, 9, who's the town that's really fine?...") and here's Elodie Reed's VT Public report on how town meeting itself went.
SPONSORED: Make a true difference! At Hearts You Hold, the Upper Valley-based nonprofit that supports immigrants, migrants, and refugees by taking the time to ask them what they need, we've been flooded with requests as the weather changes. At the burgundy link above or here, you'll find requests from farmworkers in Orange and Grafton counties—as well as elsewhere—who need jackets, boots, shoes, overalls, shorts and other items to wear while they keep area farms running. Sponsored by Hearts You Hold.Two Windsor Co. Head Start preschool programs closing to allow two others to expand. One of the programs, the Northwoods Preschool in WRJ, actually shut down last fall, Christina Dolan reports in the Valley News. The other, in Windsor, will close in May. SEVCA administers Head Start's Windsor County preschools; Windsor County Head Start Director Lori Canfield tells Dolan the programs had trouble competing on salary with school districts. So it's shifting resources to existing programs in Chester and Springfield, where it will pay higher salaries and offer extended hours and year-round preschool.Falling in love with the same person a second time—when you've forgotten the first. "It’s hard to imagine an amnesia romance story that hasn’t been done before," writes Thetford Academy's Leo Downey in this week's Enthusiasms. But he's found one: Alyson Derrick's Forget Me Not, which was one of the ten "longlist" finalists for a National Book Award last fall. Derrick's YA novel follows two young women in conservative small-town Pennsylvania both before and after a head injury robs one of them of two years' worth of memory—and explores what Leo calls both the pain and the beauty of forgetting.SPONSORED: Finding Our Stride is searching for its next executive director! After 13 fulfilling years leading Finding Our Stride (FOS), Jenny Williams will retire later this year—though she'll help with the search and transition to a new leader and remain an active volunteer. FOS is a dynamic organization boosting physical and mental health for K-8 youth in the Upper Valley through free afterschool running programs, mostly in under-served communities. It's looking for a seasoned leader who can drive the vision and direction of a growing organization. Sponsored by Finding Our Stride.That transmission line touted to pass through NH and VT? Never mind. National Grid, the chief player behind the 211-mile Twin States Clean Energy Link, which was to carry electricity both ways between New England and Quebec, has canceled the $2 billion project. The move comes despite financial support from the Biden administration; InDepthNH's Paula Tracy reports it may stem from a lack of commitment to the project from New England states beside NH and VT, though consumer advocate Don Kreis also notes that over the past year, Hydro Quebec has backed off promising unlimited energy supplies.The big question in Vermont yesterday: School spending. As VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein reports, voters across the state were looking at an average jump in education property taxes of 19 percent, and they weren't happy. Though a number of towns have put off votes on school budgets (Hartford's, for instance, will be on April 15), preliminary results last night showed a mix of results: budgets went down in the Champlain Valley School District, Milton, Rutland Town, Barre Unified, South Burlington, the Otter Valley Unified District, and the Barstow Unified School District, WCAX reports.Another paper takes to the mails: Burlington Free Press will no longer deliver. The paper’s parent company, Gannett, announced the move last week, reports Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days. The Freep joins papers in southern VT as well as some towns in the Valley News delivery area in turning to the USPS—which, as Allen notes, has had its own struggles with reliable delivery. Gannett did not respond to Allen's query about how much money it would save and how many jobs would be lost. As of last fall, the paper's average weekday print circulation stood at 3,705, down from about 5,000 a year ago.What's in a zone? "Grapes were something nobody ever would seriously consider growing in this area, and now we do." That's Rochester, VT farmer Kevin Dougherty talking to Seven Days' Will Solomon about the new USDA plant hardiness map. As you may remember from last fall, it's been updated—and, as Solomon notes, the zones for VT (and NH), based on average annual minimum winter temperature data, have shifted in a warmer direction. One of the coldest zones has all but disappeared (from the NEK). This is good news for lots of crops, but not so much for things like broccoli and spinach.Wait. England gets one first? You've really got to see a pic of an alligator snapping turtle to believe them: kind of like ours, only more prehistoric-looking, if that's even possible. They're native to the southern US, but somehow, reports the BBC, a dogwalker in England's Lake District found one last month. The turtle, which locals quickly named Fluffy, was fished out of the water with a shopping basket and taken to a local vet. "I'm sure if it was left there it would be invasive and eat everything in the water," the vet said.The Wednesday Vordle. If you're new to Daybreak, this is the Upper Valley version of Wordle, with a five-letter word chosen from an item in the previous day's Daybreak. A word game—but local!
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
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There's that Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, perfect for a rainy day. Plus, of course, fleece vests, hoodies, sweatshirts, even a throw blanket. And hats, mugs, and—once you work up a puzzle-piece sweat—tees. Check it all out at the link!
This evening at 6, Grantham's Dunbar Free Library hosts novelist and scholar Mary Kronenwetter for her talk, "Corbin's Animal Garden". She'll be detailing the history of what is now Corbin Park, the (in)famous and secretive fenced-in hunting preserve that takes up parts of Grantham, Plainfield, Cornish, and Croydon. It got its start in the late 1800s when real estate magnate Austin Corbin bought up his neighbors' farms and stocked the land withboar, bison, bighorn sheep, antelope, elk, Chinese pheasant, and other imported animals. Kronenwetter will talk about all that—plus the park's role in saving the American bison.
And at 7 this evening, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies picks up its Suds & Science series with a presentation by Dartmouth STEM librarian (and PhD) Lilly Linden talking about her research into novel genera of frogs from the Western Ghats of India. It'll be live in VCE's presentation room at its office, 20 Palmer Court in WRJ, and will also be filmed by JAM for future streaming.
More rain? Pshaw.
We'll just agree that "Burning Down the House" is the Talking Heads' forever. But
(with, among others, Reggie Watts on backing vocals), which they recorded for a tribute album to
Stop Making Sense
. Seems like what we need today. David Byrne, by the way, is paying it back: He's recorded a cover of Paramore’s song “Hard Times”. It'll be released next month.
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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