WELL, WHAT A PLEASURE, UPPER VALLEY!
Things are a little unsettled today. The warm front that brought us rain overnight is slipping into Canada, but Canada will return the favor later in the day with some fronts heedlessly crossing the border right back. The result of all this to-ing and fro-ing is that there'll probably be some rain this morning, at some point the sun will come out, and then it may rain again tonight. The good news? Highs getting up toward 80. Daybreak from Ascutney. Clouds above, fog below, the sun just peering over the mountains in between... Ed Stemmler sent this pic along yesterday morning just after he'd taken it from atop Mt. Ascutney. "I’m sitting up here watching the fog roll downstream and all the ridges showing above the fog. Very peaceful," he wrote. Yes it is. Thanks, Ed.Well, it's a done deal: Dartmouth and sexual misconduct plaintiffs sign settlement agreement. The details were hammered out in August: $14 million in payments, no admission of liability by the college. Dartmouth will also expand its effort to increase the diversity of its deans, boost the advisory committee that oversees its campus climate initiative, and either add WISE staff on campus or donate to the local advocacy group.River Park inches forward. Nine months after developer David Clem proposed moving residential construction to the forefront of his long-awaited West Leb project, the city's planning board has approved the idea. This will allow Clem to construct a 125,000 square foot apartment building and temporary parking. The board also advanced plans for a 95,800-square-foot retail and office building focused on biomedical space. (VN)VTrans awards $3.3 million in federal grants for bike and pedestrian improvements. The Hartland Three Corners pedestrian path gets $267,000; sidewalk scoping projects in Barnard and Norwich get $33,000 each; and Bradford gets money to study "safe community connections" to Low St. John Forest. Norwich Chief Jen Frank confirms nature of scam, offers advice on how to avoid it. In an update to town residents on the listserv, Frank said that "a town employee had fallen victim to a Business Email Compromise scheme (BEC), a sophisticated scam that targets both businesses and individuals who perform legitimate transfer-of-funds requests." Demo Sofronas provides the full release on his About Norwich blog. Looks like the West Hartford store's going to take a while longer. On Facebook last night, Josh Williams, who's been working for months to re-open the village store, posted that he's been having trouble coming to terms with the building's owner. "We went into this wanting to provide the town with a great place to shop and dine. We have invested so much time and money, IM NOT GIVING IN YET!!" he wrote.DHMC plans $130 million expansion. The hospital on Monday laid out its proposal to the Leb Planning Board for a new four-story patient tower near the northern entrance. It would add 64 beds (there are currently 396 licensed), along with capacity for an additional 48 beds down the road. The hospital has axed its original plan for a 400-space parking garage, and instead has gotten Hanover's approval to add 300 spaces of employee parking in its lot near Jesse's. (VN)Sununu signs bill banning oil, gas drilling off NH coast. The move comes as the Trump administration has said it wants to open new waters for oil exploration. The state joins NJ, NY, ME, and OR in protecting the coastline. NH is protecting something else just as sacrosanct: the GOP presidential primary. "Under no circumstances will the New Hampshire primary ever be canceled, whether there’s token opposition or a serious contest,” Steve Duprey, New Hampshire’s national Republican committeeman, told the AP. Trump allies in various other states have moved to shut down 2020 primary contests. This means we can still get a look at Bill Weld, Joe Walsh, and Mark Sanford (and maybe even Carly Fiorina, if recent speculation bears out).VT business survey marks "small but noticeable erosion" in confidence. The survey measuring business confidence, carried out by the VT Business Roundtable and the research firm Economic & Policy Resources, found that business owners are at best modest in their growth predictions. Employers "continue to be in a no- to slow-growth mode due to lack of available and ready workforce and issues of affordability in Vermont. And a declining population (i.e., consumers) means that any kind of market expansion will primarily happen outside of Vermont,” says Roundtable President Lisa Ventriss.Comcast reaches settlement with VT public access stations. Two years ago, the state Public Service Board laid out a set of requirements for the cable giant to improve service to the stations; Comcast took that decision to federal court. Now it's reached an agreement that pares back the amount of cable line it has to add for customers without access, but will keep details of public access programming in its programming guide. If everything gets approved, Comcast can continue in VT for the next 11 years.Vets with PTSD turn to beekeeping. A program at the VA medical center in Manchester, NH, is getting good results with the apiary it installed in May — part of a growing effort by VA hospitals and veterans groups to promote agricultural training for ex-soldiers. “I’m in this program to help me get out of the thought process of all those problems that I have,” Vince Ylitalo, who served 40 years, including two tours in Iraq, tells the AP. “It helps me think of something completely different.... I’m just thinking about bees.”"Uncle," goldenrod lovers! Wow. You should see my inbox. Yesterday's item offhandedly dissing goldenrod drew a passionate response. It was lovely hearing from all of you. The point: Beetles, bees, honeybees, moths, southbound monarch butterflies... they all live off goldenrod nectar this time of year. Plus, goldenrod's beautiful to look at. Plus, it isn't ragweed. (Bring it on, ragweed lovers!) The link (thanks, SR!) is to a UNH Extension encomium.
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WHAT'S DOING ON A WEDNESDAY EVENING?
Waterman, a conservationist, climber, and writer, is best known for the wilderness nonfiction she produced with her late husband, Guy (yes, that was him in yesterday's Daybreak). Her first novel is about the 1881 Greely expedition to the Canadian Arctic. The men spent three years trapped in the far north; only seven of the original 25 returned. Waterman drew from official papers, letters, and diaries (including one housed at the Dartmouth library) to tell their story. Starts at 6:30.
The former NH ag commissioner and well-known commentator grew up going to one in Cornish, so when he talks about "the romance and the reality" it's not just from research. They usually had no running water, parents took turns bringing lunch, measles or the flu could shut down a school for weeks. But they also had a noble goal: to give everyone a chance at an education. At the United Church of Christ at 7.
"The story of a tone-deaf socialite who gives singing recitals could be a one-note joke, but the Grange Theatre's production is a funny and sweetly moving duet for two engaging characters,"
Seven Days
' reviewer
. At ArtisTree in Pomfret, tonight through Saturday.
And to get you going on a morning when you'd probably rather just pull the blanket over your head, here's some
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Thanks for the tip, Dad!
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See you tomorrow.
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