Daybreak Wednesday 7/7/21

UP AND AT 'EM, UPPER VALLEY!

Since it's going to be cooler and the sun we get will mostly be this morning and all.... That cold front ushered in cooler temps and (here's hoping) drier air, though we'll eventually get some moist air flow from the west that will bring in more clouds and a chance of showers and thunder in the afternoon and evening. Highs today in the upper 70s to low 80s north to south, lows somewhere around 60 tonight.Before we move on, we have to talk... I want to let you know that Daybreak is going to take a longer-than-usual break after next week—just over a month, starting July 19, back Aug. 23. Some of that will be actual time off; the rest is a break from daily publishing to work on tasks—refurbishing the back end, researching ways to become more efficient, exploring possibilities for the future—that have been impossible to get to when Daybreak has to get sent out every weekday. It's a long time, I know. But I'm going to trust you to be okay.Still, you didn't think I'd leave you totally in the lurch, did you? Of course not. So three times a week during the break, I'll be sending out CoffeeBreak. Think of it as a diversion—a spot of Daybreak—with music, one or two of those little distractions that run at the end of the "news" section, and a few of the regulars you've gotten used to. Some of it will be new, some will be favorites from the past. If you'd like that, sign up at the maroon link. And if you want to give your inbox a break for a while, that's fine, too. Believe me, I understand.Now... Woodstock board rejects Faulkner Park switch. In a unanimous vote (with one member absent), the town's selectboard voted not to accept a move by the trust overseeing the park to transfer ownership to the town, reports Alex Hanson in the Valley News. The proposal by JP Morgan Chase, which manages the trust, had been enmired in controversy, with opponents arguing that the trust's offer of a fund to maintain the park would shortchange the town. The board did leave the door open for another proposal, Hanson notes.SPONSORED: Go all in to end cancer with The Prouty! The remarkable event raises funds for life-saving research and critical patient and family support services at Dartmouth and Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Norris Cotton Cancer Center. Registration is open at the maroon link for Golf on July 9, Cycle on July 10, and Walk on July 11, and for the 40-day Virtual. To date, we have raised more than $3.6 million, but we need your help as we push toward our goal of $4 million for the 40th Annual Prouty! Sponsored by the Friends of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center.Local restaurant owners launch delivery app to compete with the giants. Born of frustration with the predatory approach of apps like GrubHub, UVER launched yesterday—the brainchild of Jarrett Berke at Lou's, John Pepper at Boloco, and Nigel Leeming at Murphy's. “Delivery is becoming like a public utility, and we want to have say in how it’s done,” Berke tells the VN's John Lippman. It will start in Hanover, expand to WRJ and W. Leb...and eventually grow to deliver products from local farms and other outlets. “This isn’t venture capital money. We’re going to grow at a pace we can sustain,” says Berke.Dartmouth offers a glimpse of land-use plans. In a strategic master plan adopted by its board in November and released last Thursday, the college lays out a "framework" for development from the area around DHMC north to Rivercrest, near Kendal. Among other things, the plan—at the link—cites the potential to turn Dewey Lot into "a mixed-use destination"; use a relocated med school for graduate housing; use parts of the golf course closest to Lyme Road for academic and administrative buildings and housing; and turn land adjacent to Pine Park into an arboretum. It also foresees an expanded arts district spreading out from the decommissioned power plant downtown.Mountain Creamery's move to W. Woodstock from downtown off to a strong start. The popular restaurant and ice cream spot, which had stood on Central Street for three decades, reopened on Sunday. "It was a lot of people, a lot of familiar faces, and a lot of them I've known my whole life," owner Ben Pilsmaker tells Gareth Henderson in Omni Reporter. "They were coming in at 7 a.m." The new spot is next to the Sleep Woodstock Motel. Meanwhile, Henderson writes, 37 Central Clothiers owners Kim and Scott Smith have opened a pop-up ice-cream spot in the old Vermont Flannel space on Central.NH Supreme Court strikes down voter law. Still playing catchup from the long weekend here, but this one's important. On Friday, the court—in a 4-0 decision—declared that the GOP-drafted 2017 voter registration law is unconstitutional. You remember: It's the one that required voters prove their place of "domicile" by providing elections officials with a series of documents—or face steep fines. The law "imposes unreasonable burdens on the right to vote,” the court wrote, in essence parting company with the US Supreme Court's Arizona decision to say that regardless of intent, impact matters. Last year was great for local food producers. The future? It's still uncertain. At least, that's what Edgewater Farm's Pooh Sprague and others tell NH Bulletin's Amanda Gokee. “I don’t think there’s anybody who feels it’s the new normal," Sprague says. One big issue, Gokee writes: "There is surprisingly little information available to farmers or anyone in agriculture about the local food economy" in NH. Researchers at UNH are trying to change that, focusing in particular on understanding what's keeping so many Granite Staters (though less so around here) from buying local.From a quarter-acre to nine acres—emerging VT winemaker Camila Carrillo aims to expand. Carrillo, who is 29 and spent years apprenticing with winemakers around the globe before working with Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber at Barnard's La Garagista, launched her La Montañuela label—named for her grandfather's farm outside Caracas, Venezuela—in 2018. It's already garnered attention in the wine world, writes Kim MacQueen in Seven Days—all from a tiny vineyard in Hinesburg. Now Carrillo's bought land in New Haven, VT for apple and plum trees, as well as grapes. "It's my Mt. Everest," she says."I’m not exaggerating to make a point. This is close to catastrophe, I think, statewide." That's Beth Sightler, who runs a community mental health agency in Colchester, talking to VPR's Peter Hirschfeld about the desperate lack of frontline staff at her and the state's other 15 community agencies. Of the 5,000 positions across VT's mental-health system, over 800 are vacant, Hirschfeld reports. The result is that hundreds of people in need of services are on waiting lists—and many are now winding up in emergency rooms. The state has created a task force to look at the issue.As weather gets warmer and wetter, insurance industry faces challenges in VT. That's the conclusion of a report issued Monday by the state's Dept. of Financial Regulation, writes Abigail Chang in VTDigger. In particular, it notes, severe weather accounts for most of the property damage claims in the state, and the frequency and severity of those events is expected to rise. It's not just that Vermonters will have to deal directly with damage; they may also see insurance rates rise and availability fall. Want to make some easy money? Bet some friends that they can't stack five M&Ms. That, at least, is what Gael Fashingbauer Cooper suggests on CNET, given that the official world record for M&M-stacking is, in fact, just five. She tried hard to match Will Cutbill's record, set last month—and "once, and only for a millisecond, and with no witnesses because that's always how these things work, I got three M&Ms to stack. And then I breathed or the cat sneezed or an oxygen molecule shifted or a butterfly flapped its wings in China..." Oh, and you should adopt her rule: If a stack falls, you have to eat it.

Okay, let's see...

Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it keep going by hitting the maroon button:

Back when they were kids and their family took car trips through the Mountain West and Pacific Northwest, Greta, Willow, and Solana Gothard would sit in back listening to tapes of NPR's Celtic music show, “The Thistle & Shamrock." “We actually called it ‘travel music’ and associated it with looking out the window at mountains, lakes and rivers—that feeling of going out on an adventure," Greta told a reporter not long ago. Now the sisters are The Gothard Sisters and Celtic musicians themselves.

off their new album. 

Okay, off to buy a pack of M&Ms... See you tomorrow.

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?

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!