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BRATTLEBORO, VT 

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PERMIT NO. 24 

Vermont Independent Media 

P.O. Box 1212, Brattleboro, VT 05302 

www.commonsnews.org 

Vermont 

Press Association 

N EWSPAPER CONTEST, 2011 

THIS WEEK 

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED 

Voices 

ANNIE HAWKINS 

Living with 

the bigot 

within me 

page C1 

DEBORAH LUSKIN 

Medicare: A 

good model 

for a singlepayer 

health 

care system 

page C3 

The Arts 

NEW MUSICAL 

‘Pregnancy 

Pact’: When 

teen fantasies 

run into life’s 

hard realities 

FOOTBALL 

FIRST PRIZE 

The Best of Vermont — General Excellence 

SECOND PRIZE 

Best Local Story 

THIRD PRIZE 

Editorial Writing 

IRENE 

Dealing with the flood in southern Vermont, one year later 

A Look Back, a Look Ahead 

IRENE: 

A Look Back, 

a Look Ahead 

This special magazine 

supplement 

to this week’s paper, 

commemorating the 

catastrophic flooding 

one year ago this 

week, is a coproduction 

of The Commons and 

PrimeTime Concepts, 

Inc., publisher of SO 

Vermont Arts & Living. 

A portion of the advertising 

proceeds will be 

donated to recovery 

efforts. 

page B1 

Sports 

Colonels, 

Terriers get 

ready for 

opening 

night Friday 

• 

NON-DAILY 

DIVISION www.commonsnews.org 

page C4 

Members of Vermont Independent Media 

receive The Commons in the mail. 

Visit http://donate.commonsnews.org. 

Primary: Toleno defeats O’Connor; 

Partridge and Trieber trump Moore 

By Olga Peters 

The Commons 

BRATTLEBORO—Come January, 

there will be a new face in Montpelier 

representing Brattleboro’s District 3. 

Political newcomer and local businessman 

Tristan Toleno was declared 

By Randolph T. Holhut 


WILLIAMSVILLE—The 

spirit of resilience in the face 

of disaster was celebrated on 

Sunday in the villages of South 

Newfane and Williamsville with 

a parade, a barbecue, and sheer 

joy at having survived the worst 

of Tropical Storm Irene. 

South Newfane artist 

Christine Triebert, along with 

other community members, organized 

the Rock River Revival 

parade to honor how the community 

came together last 

year during and after Irene’s 

devastation. 

Hundreds of area residents 

turned out for the parade, which 

followed the Dover Road from 

the Green Iron Bridge in South 

Newfane to the Williamsville 

Hall, the site of a post-parade 

barbecue prepared by Jon Julian, 

a Dover Road resident who operates 

the Top of the Hill Grill 

in Brattleboro. 

Triebert was beaming and applauding 

as the first units of the 

parade — the firefighters of the 

South Newfane/Williamsville 

Fire Department — passed by. 

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AT PRESS TIME 

the unofficial winner of the Democratic 

primary on Tuesday, defeating challenger 

Kate O’Connor by an unofficial 

tally of 352-323. 

The winner of the District 3 race will 

be succeeding retiring incumbent Sarah 

Edwards, who chose not to run for another 

term after 10 years in Montpelier 

Williamsville, South Newfane celebrate 

surviving Irene with a parade 

ALLISON TEAGUE/THE COMMONS 

An “I Am Vermont Strong” license plate autographed 

by Gov. Peter Shumlin. The governor gave these out 

to public officials during his tour. 

Still waiting, moving 

on, still more to do 

Gov. Shumlin commemorates anniversary 

of storm, but some people have other goals 

—Artists, town officials, politicians, 

and media-types escaping 

the heat of a late-summer 

sun stood in the cooling shadow 

RANDOLPH T. HOLHUT/THE COMMONS 

Former state Sen. Robert T. Gannett speaks at a 

ceremony in Brattleboro in March that honored 

him on the eve of turning 95. Gannett died on 

Sunday, exactly one month shy of that milestone. 

COMING 

TOGETHER 

with JOY 


A float by Alcan Power Equipment on Auger Hill Road pokes fun at what 

conditions were like immediately after Irene. 

of the Whetstone Studio for the 

Arts on Saturday morning. 

Many of the visitors left their 

houses still under repair, drove 

down patched roads with gleaming 

guardrails, and walked across 

By Randolph T. Holhut 


BRATTLEBORO— 

There are few figures 

in the history 

of Brattleboro over 

the past seven decades 

who match the list of accomplishments 

of former state 

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Brattleboro, Vermont 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 • Vol. VII, No. 35 • Issue #167 

WINDHAM COUNTY’S AWARD-WINNING, INDEPENDENT SOURCE FOR NEWS AND VIEWS 

■ SEE PARADE, PAGE A3 

Proof generated August 29, 2012 1:43 AM 

READER-SUPPORTED NEWS SINCE 2006 

Join us and help make this the best free newspaper you’ve ever paid for. See page A6. 

as a Progressive lawmaker. 

There is no Republican candidate for 

the seat, which — if the unofficial results 

stand — will make Toleno the presumptive 

state representative. 

According to Town Clerk Annette 

Cappy, about 500 absentee ballots 

were cast in Brattleboro, 200 of them in 

Prices 

sLAsHeD eD e 

AgAin! AgA Ag in! 

THE SHOE TREE 

Anatomy 

of an 

eviction 

20 residents of Bellows Falls 

seek new homes after 

emergency health order 

condemns apartment building. 

How did this happen? 

By Allison Teague 


BELLOWS FALLS— 

Over the last two years, the 

Rockingham Selectboard and the 

Bellows Falls Village Trustees 

have been grappling with unsafe 

housing issues in the village, trying 

to address them through fire 

and safety codes. 

In some cases, aging housing 

stock built during the boomtown 

days in the late 19th and early 

20th centuries of this former 

mill town has not been properly 

maintained. 

The problem has been made 

worse by absentee landlords who 

have been unable to maintain 

these older buildings. 

Caught in the middle, between 

municipal authorities trying to 

enforce building codes and landlords 

who say they can’t afford 

to maintain their properties, are 

the tenants, many of whom are 

having trouble finding safe and 

affordable places to live. 

For the 20 people who lived 

on 42 Green St. who lost their 

apartments last week when 

the town issued an Emergency 

Health Order that forced their 

eviction, the future is uncertain. 

How did this eviction happen, 

an eviction that tenants say they 

received no warning of until a 

couple of weeks ago? 

Absentee owners 

According to the property 

manager, Jim Elsesser of Alstead, 

N.H., the three-story building 

that houses three 3-bedroom 

apartments is owned by Veronica 

and Scott Cooper of Pinecliffe 

Holdings LLC of Plymouth, 

Mass., and Golden, Colo. 

Sen. Robert T. Gannett. 

“He never stopped having 

an interest in helping others,” 

said retired Brattleboro attorney 

Chuck Cummings. “He was a 

good friend to a lot of people, 

and a special friend to me.” 

The longtime resident of 

Pleasant Valley Road died on 

Sunday at the age of 94, exactly 

Renaissance 

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District 3. The final results, with writeins 

included, are expected to be released 

Wednesday morning. 

At press time Tuesday night, Cappy 

said there were very few write-ins in 

District 3. 

After hearing the voting results, a 

According to Elsesser, the 

landlords told him they needed 

the rent from all the tenants 

to make their mortgage on the 

building. 

When, according to Elsesser, 

one of the tenants stopped paying 

rent in January of this year, it 

made it impossible for the owners 

to comply with and repair 

the health and safety violations 

found by Town Health Officer 

Ellen Howard. 

“Ellen sent numerous certified 

letters notifying them [the 

landlords] of this health hazard 

at least six months ago,” said 

Rockingham Municipal Manager 

Tim Cullenen. “She never got 

a reply.” 

The town found that the porch 

on the structure was “unsafe as 

the main entry way to the building 

for tenants and the post office 

mail carrier.” 

After receiving no response 

from the Coopers, an Emergency 

Health Order was issued Aug. 8, 

with an eviction notice to tenants 

to vacate the premises on 

Aug. 23. 

While Cullenen said the tenants 

“had plenty of time to find 

another place to live,” referring 

to the six-month process of trying 

to locate and deal with the 

landlords, it is not clear that the 

tenants were ever told directly 

that the process would result 

in their needing to find another 

place to live. 

Both the town and the village 

have been cracking down on 

buildings for fire safety, health 

hazards, or unsafe building violations 

as well as being “derelict,” 

with a property on 69 Atkinson 

St. notified of an unsafe building 

■ SEE GOVERNOR, PAGE A2 ■ SEE EVICTION, PAGE A7 

Friends, colleagues remember 

‘the conscience of the Senate’ 

Robert T. Gannett, 94, leaves legacy in 

politics, public service, and civic engagement 

one month shy of his 95th birthday. 

He leaves a considerable 

legacy of public service and civic 

engagement on behalf of his adopted 

hometown. 

Gannett was born in Boston 

on Sept. 26, 1917. He graduated 

from Milton Academy, 

and then got his undergraduate 

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A2 NEwS ThE C OMMONS • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 

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partic ipation through publication 

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org; to pro mote local, independent 

journalism in Windham County; 

and to promote civic engagement 

by building media skills among 

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Houlihan, Olga Peters. 

ABOuT ThE NEwSpApER 

The Commons is a nonprofit, weekly 

community newspaper published since 

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Inc., a nonprofit corporation under section 

501(c)3 of the federal tax code. 

The newspaper is free, but it is 

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The Commons presents a broad range of 

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material in Voices, our editorial and 

commentary section. We want the paper 

to provide an unpredictable variety 

of food for thought from all points on 

the political spectrum. 

We especially invite responses to 

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SINCE SOME hAVE ASKED... 

Despite our similar name, The Com mons 

is not affiliated with Ver mont Commons, 

a website that is linked with a movement 

advocating Vermont’s secession from the 

United States. 

————— 

Without our volunteers, this 

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Special thanks to: 

Editorial support: 

Joyce Marcel, 

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Chris Petrak 

Operations support: 

Simi Berman, Chris Wesolowski, 

Diana Bingham, Jim Maxwell, 

Bob Rottenberg, Bill Pearson, 

Menda Waters, Jayne Woods 

n Governor FROM SECTION FRONT 

still-sandy yards, to stand by the 

building rehabilitated by owner 

David Parker after Tropical 

Storm Irene’s floods tore through 

it last year. 

Irene barreled through 

Vermont on Aug. 28, 2011. 

According to numbers from the 

Vermont Recovery Office, the 

storm affected 200 towns, leaving 

45 with severe damage. It hit 

3,500 homes, displaced 1,405 

households, and killed six people, 

two in Windham County. 

On the one-year anniversary, 

Gov. Peter Shumlin kicked 

off a four-day series of Irene 

commemorations in some 

Vermont communities hardest 

hit by the storm, among them the 

Windham County towns and villages 

of Bartonsville, Brattleboro, 

Wilmington, Stratton, and 

Jamaica. 

Shumlin spoke about how far 

the state had come since Irene 

through the heroic work of volunteers, 

neighbors, and town 

officials. He said much of the 

Made in America 

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recovery efforts were due to the 

early generosity of Vermonters 

and “strangers from out of state.” 

He honored community members 

and town officials with 

signed Vermont Strong license 

plates. Shumlin also asked that 

no one forget the six people 

killed by the storm. Two of the 

dead included Ivana Taseva of 

Shtip, Macedonia, who died 

in Wilmington, and Anthony 

Doleszny in Brattleboro. 

More needs to be done, said 

Shumlin. 

Irene’s devastation did not 

hit the state evenly. While some 

watched their homes wash downstream, 

others weathered the rain 

damage-free. Vermonters’ individual 

experience with recovery 

also mirrors these two ends of 

the spectrum. 

“We are the tale of two states,” 

said Shumlin. “There are those 

who didn’t get hit that bad by 

Irene. That group has moved 

on. Then there’s the other group 

whose wounds are still fresh. 

OLGA PETERS/THE COMMONS 

Gov. Peter Shumlin presents a “Vermont Strong” 

plate to Jamaica Emergency Management 

Coordinator Paul Fraser. 


BrattleBoro 

FoodCo-op 

They’re frustrated, demoralized, 

and financially strained.” 

According to the Vermont 

Recovery Office, 7,000 

Vermonters applied to the 

Federal Emergency Management 

Agency (FEMA) for individual 

assistance. 

Shumlin said that 700 

Vermonters with the toughest 

of the tough cases are still waiting 

for assistance. The state has 

set up the Vermont Disaster 

Relief Fund, commonly called 

“the fund of last resort,” to help. 

“As we commemorate Irene, 

let’s use this opportunity to recommit 

to those still in pain,” 

he said. 

For people still waiting for 

assistance and sick of dealing 

with red tape and bureaucracy, 

Shumlin said, “I am frustrated, 

you are frustrated, we are 

frustrated.” 

“But,” he added. “Be sure to 

turn this frustration into action.” 

The governor urged 

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Labor Day festivities, make sure you pick up some Wolavers 

beer, all varieties at the amazing price of $8.29 a six-pack. 

The Co-op beer and wine department is always bringing in 

new and exciting beers from all across the country. We have 

the largest craft beer selection in the area, which is why we 

are on the famous Valley Beer Trail. I am also constantly 

working with wine suppliers to make sure we are getting the 

latest and greatest values from across the globe. 

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OLGA PETERS/THE COMMONS 

A storm-damaged section of Route 30 in Jamaica, where four homes were 

destroyed by flooding during Tropical Storm Irene. 

Vermonters to buy a Vermont 

Strong license plate, which helps 

fund recovery. He said that the 

state needs $10 million to meet 

the unanticipated expenses of recovering 

from the disaster, and 

the sale of 50,000 plates would 

raise $1 million. 

“Let’s rededicate ourselves to 

the mission that is not yet accomplished,” 

he said. 

Shumlin pledged to continue 

to “hammer” on the federal 

government to ensure Vermont 

receives all the assistance it is 

entitled to. 

The state will not take a “no” 

from FEMA as a final no, and is 

working with people to appeal 

any application FEMA turns 

down, he said. 

Shumlin also highlighted the 

Legislature’s work. Lawmakers 

passed two recovery provisions. 

For towns that can attribute to 

Irene an increase in their Grand 

List of over 3 cents per $100, 

the state will pay the difference. 

For homeowners who lost their 

homes, the state will match 25 

percent of FEMA’s buyout to 

homeowners. 

Shumlin said the state is also 

pushing FEMA to pay for increasing 

the size of undersized 

culverts and bridges that backed 

up during Irene, compounding 

the flooding. FEMA traditionally 

pays to replace only the infrastructure 

that existed before, 

not improvements. 

If the state just puts back what 

was broken in the first place, he 

argued, FEMA will only find itself 

right back here after the next 

disaster. 

In a separate interview, 

Shumlin said that his hopes for 

the tour were to deliver on a 

promise: to give back as much as 

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required 

possible to the people who suffered 

damage from Irene. Going 

forward, he hoped to make the 

state better prepared for the 

next storm. 

He said the state had an opportunity 

to be a leader in moving 

people from “addiction” on 

oil, replacing fossil fuel energy 

sources with a balanced renewable 

mix of solar, wind, hydro, 

and geothermal energy. 

As a “small-world state” with a 

lot of roads, Vermont also needs 

to rethink its use of cars and gasoline-powered 

transportation, 

said Shumlin, who wants to see 

more economic incentives in this 

area, along with charging stations 

for electric cars and more hybrid 

vehicles. 

Shumlin said he has also been 

working with the governors of 

the other five New England 

states and Québec premier Jean 

Charest to bring higher-speed 

rail to the state. No one will 

ride a train that travels only 40 

m.p.h., he said. 

Shumlin said he was proud of 

how quickly the state rebuilt its 

buildings, bridges, and roads. 

But as governor, he has found it 

frustrating that “grief and pain 

you can’t fix.” 

“What we can never put back 

are the Vermonters we lost,” 

Shumlin said. 

Irene, for the better, tore 

down the silos between state 

agencies like the Agency of 

Transportation and Agency of 

Natural Resources, usually on 

opposite sides of the river in a 

project, said Shumlin. 

Shumlin added that he 

thought this change represents 

a structural alteration that will allow 

the state to operate smarter, 

faster, better, and cheaper. 

Unmet needs 

Not everyone viewed the governor’s 

commemorative tour as 

a success. 

David Parker, owner of the 

Whetstone Studio for the Arts, 

immediately after the Governor’s 

visit felt that Shumlin had 

“missed an opportunity.” 

Parker said he had wished the 

governor had spoken more about 

the Brattleboro community. He 

also wished that more conversation 

had gone toward looking at 

the possibilities in creating and 

taking new actions in the future. 

Parker and his four-person 

crew took six months to repair 

the Whetstone Studio for the 

Arts building after Irene. They 

had to “cut off” the back portion 

of the building destroyed in 

the flood and to accommodate 

for the about 15 feet of missing 

riverbank. 

The building also had to be 

lifted to repair the foundation. 

Parker, who lost woodworking 

equipment in the flood, also 

added more studios off the original 

building. 

FEMA does not fund business 

recovery. “If anyone wants to 

have a nightmare, call the [Small 

Business Administration],” said 

Parker. 

Parker used funds from 

flood insurance, two loans 

from the Vermont Economic 

Development Authority 

(VEDA), and one SBA loan to 

rebuild. 

“I’m totally exhausted,” he 

said. 

He said his survival instinct 

— gained from being the oldest 

of nine kids in an Irish family — 

kept him going. 

The Whetstone Studio houses 

13 studios and Parker’s business. 

He said the next step is creating 

an outdoor space for people 

to enjoy. 

Driving north to the afternoon 

leg of the Governor’s tour, cars 

passed brooks of large rocks and 

sand. The waterways, sometimes 

with only rivulets of water 

between the stones, looked like 

fresh scars baked dry under the

The Commons • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 neWs A3 

afternoon sun. 

By the time Shumlin reached 

Stratton, the crowd had dwindled 

to three. 

In Jamaica? One. 

Paul Fraser, who serves as 

Jamaica’s emergency management 

director, stood on the 

Town Hall steps waiting for the 

governor to arrive. 

He said that Jamaica held its 

own commemoration events 

earlier that day, so some people 

might not have come to meet 

Shumlin, too. 

For Fraser, Aug. 28, 2011 

was a blur. 

One year later, what stands 

out, he said, was people of 

Jamaica helping one another 

over the following days. 

“The people rose to this occasion 

really well,” he said. 

The townspeople did everything 

from feeding crews working 

excavating equipment to 

riding all-terrain vehicles to 

check on people isolated by the 

flood. More than a dozen riders 

helped carry 34 people and their 

pets out of cut-off areas. 

Fraser said it was a blessing 

that the storm hit during the day 

when everyone was awake. 

“If it had happened at night, 

we would have lost people,” 

he said. 

The Ball Mountain Brook that 

runs through town washed away 

four homes and a road, he said. 

While Fraser was waiting, 

Selectboard chair Lexa Clark 

stopped by. When she learned 

that Shumlin was coming, she 

said she was leaving. She did 

not want to be at the “political” 

event staged during an election 

year, she said just before speeding 

away in her vehicle. 

Fraser put Clark’s response in 

context. Shumlin’s visit seems 

more political than about the 

people, he said, wondering where 

the governor was six months ago. 

“We’re not happy with politics,” 

Fraser said. “Politics have 

been slowing things down.” 

Fraser said that four homeowners 

had been told that things 

would be done to replace their 

houses in March. Months have 

passed, and still nothing has 

been done. 

The state and FEMA argue 

about who is doing what, said 

Fraser, and townspeople struggle 

to keep abreast of rules that 

keep changing. 

Fraser has also observed that 

every time FEMA assigns new 

representatives to the town, the 

new FEMA person reinterprets 

the regulations. 

When Shumlin arrived, Fraser 

accepted the Vermont Strong license 

plate, saying that the honor 

wasn’t about him. 

“I just happen to be the one 

standing still [today],” he said. 

Shumlin and Fraser spoke 

about the town’s frustrations. 

FEMA paperwork has posed 

a lot of issues, said Fraser. When 

filling out the papers on the 

washed-away homes, Fraser said, 

he didn’t know he needed to use 

the phrase “substantially damaged” 

to get FEMA’s attention. 

“We don’t know if they’re 

damaged,” he said, laughing. 

“We haven’t seen them. They’re 

gone.” 

“Eventually, you’ll get there 

but you’ve got to appeal it,” said 

Shumlin. 

“We are flat out just trying 

to tread water with this stuff,” 

said Fraser. “Nobody’s got the 

answer.” 

V ermonters are known for 

our sense of community. 

We’re known for our flinty 

determination. Our state’s 

people have proven their fortitute 

tenfold in the aftermath 

of this disaster. 

—U.S. Senator 

Patrick Leahy 

By Allison Teague 


BARTONSVILLE—To start 

his statewide tour of towns most 

affected by Tropical Storm 

Irene on Saturday, Gov. Peter 

Shumlin chose the site of the former 

Lower Bartonsville Covered 

Bridge. 

“I came here first, because 

this is where it started,” he said. 

The Bartonsville Covered 

Bridge was built in 1870 and 

is the main link to the village 

of Lower Bartonsville. Record 

flooding on the Williams River 

caused by Irene on Aug. 28, 

2011, swept the bridge off 

its abutments and carried it 

downstream. 

A temporary one-lane metal 

bridge is in its place until the 

covered bridge is restored and 

returned to the place is had been 

for more than 140 years. 

Shumlin honored Bellows 

Falls Fire Chief Bill Weston 

and Bellows Falls Police Chief 

Ron Lake for their work during 

“This is a day for local people 

to show up and celebrate life 

together,” she said. “There’s a 

huge awareness of what our firemen 

did on the day of the storm, 

and how they followed their instincts 

and rescued so many people. 

They are the heroes we’re 

celebrating today.” 

The rampaging Rock River 

caused considerable damage in 

both villages, but no lives were 

lost. The scars are visible along 

the route of the now-placid river. 

Fallen trees and assorted debris 

mix with the heaps of gravel 

and rocks that have filled in the 

river’s channel in some spots, 

while fresh channels are gouged 

in new places. 

Dozens of homes were damaged 

or destroyed. In the case of 

Triebert and her partner, Carol 

Ross, their house survived, but 

their studio was damaged. Much 

of their property was washed 

away. 

“Things are greening up in 

some places, but you can still see 

how much damage occurred,” 

Triebert said. 

“But we had so much help and 

community support in the days 

and weeks and months afterward,” 

she said. “It’s something 

I’ll remember and talk about for 

the rest of my life.” 


Complaints about FEMA mingle with a 

salute to heroes at Bartonsville bridge 

the storm, but both Weston and 

Lake were quick to credit other 

town employees, particularly in 

the Highway Department, for 

assisting police and fire crews at 

the height of the flooding. 

Both Lake and Weston received 

“I Am Vermont Strong” 

license plates signed by Shumlin. 

“This is going to go in a prominent 

place,” said Weston as he 

displayed the plate proudly. “It’s 

ironic that I was going to head 

downtown to get one of the licenses 

this week.” 

Overshadowing Saturday’s appearance 

by Shumlin is the still 

unresolved matter of who is going 

to pay for the cost of restoring 

the bridge. 

Rockingham Selectboard 

Chair Thom McPhee said that 

the town has received “a $1 million 

disappointment” from the 

Vermont League of Cities and 

Towns (VLCT). 

The town recently learned 

that the VLCT insurance policy 

will cover only $230,000 of the 

repair costs, leaving the town 

responsible for $700,000. 

“VCLT told us to go to FEMA 

for the rest,” said McPhee. 

Rockingham Municipal 

Manager Tim Cullenen said 

that the Federal Emergency 

Management Agency “reimbursed 

us for $20,000 of the 

$470,000 bill for debris cleanup 

which we paid from our [bridge 

repair] fund, which now has a 

zero balance.” 

Cullenen said he appreciated 

that the Shumlin administration 

has been “pushing FEMA hard” 

to get all the money that the 

state is due for repairing storm 

damage. 

“I think we’re headed in a 

good direction,” said state Rep. 

Matt Trieber, D-Bellows Falls. 

“[State Rep.] Carolyn Partridge 

and I are working really hard in 

Montpelier to get support [for 

issues here in Rockingham].” 

On Saturday, Shumlin reassured 

those who are still wading 

through red tape and federal 

bureaucracy. 

“We have all been frustrated,” 

n Parade FROM SECTION FRONT 

RANDOLPH T. HOLHuT/THE COMMONS 

Norma Shakun shows what these homes looked like 

before Irene. 

he said. “But know that you are 

not alone. If you need to appeal a 

FEMA decision, we will be with 

you every step of the way.” 

Shumlin also acknowledged 

the new reality that Vermonters 

will be dealing with in the coming 

years. 

“It’s no coincidence that [in 

2011], we saw four major storms 

— the biggest blizzard I’ve ever 

seen in Vermont. Then the 

floods in April, and more flooding 

again in May, and then the 

flooding in August.” 

Pointing to the huge forest 

fires in the West and recordsetting 

drought in the Midwest 

this year, Shumlin said that “climate 

change is happening as a 

result of our increasing carbon 

footprint and oil addiction. We 

are seeing the effects of our own 

destruction.” 

That’s why, he said, he is 

trying to convince FEMA to 

help rebuild flood damaged areas 

in a way that acknowledges 

that global warming means bigger 

storms that happen more 

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“We’re trying to get FEMA 

to understand that spending 

$1 billion dollars now for bigger 

culverts [that won’t plug up 

so easily with debris] will save 

later,” Shumlin said. “When they 

won’t spend money for debris removal 

that can effect villages and 

towns downstream, we’re saying 

to them, ‘Are you crazy?’ We’re 

going to get more storms. This 

is now a pattern in Vermont.“ 

The ceremonies at the bridge 

site also acknowledged the six 

people who were killed by the 

storm. 

“I’m very happy [Shumlin] 

remembered the Vermonters 

we lost,” said Partridge. “This 

is a solemn and introspective 

time, and a time to be joyous 

and proud — solemn remembering 

the people we lost in 

Vermont, and proud of the Spirit 

of Vermonters and for how far 

we’ve come.” 

South Newfane artist 

Christine Triebert, 

one of the organizers 

of Sunday’s Rock River 

Revival parade, applauds 

as South Newfane/ 

Williamsville Fire Chief 

Chris Jones and his 

assistant chiefs Todd 

Brown and David Moore 

roll past. 

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A4 NEWS THE COMMONS • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 

Obituaries 

• Frances L. “Sugar” 

Bird, 85, of Whitingham. 

Died Aug. 13 at Pine Heights 

in Brattleboro. Wife of the 

late Francis Bird for 58 years. 

Mother of Francis Bird Jr. and 

his wife, Barb, of Wilmington; 

Steven Bird Sr. and his wife, 

Sharon, of Dummerston; Linda 

Bird of Brookline; and Joe Anne 

Driscoll of Killington. Sister 

of Leon Sucharzewski, Mary 

Ann Berry, and the late Paul, 

Thomas, and Elizabeth Bird. 

Born in Readsboro, the daughter 

of the late Josephine and 

John Sucharzewski, she loved 

Vermont and lived within a 25mile 

radius her whole life. As a 

young wife, she taught herself to 

cook, knit, and care for her four 

children. She taught herself sewing 

by clothing her husband and 

children. She also became an expert 

shot and hunter, as well as 

a skilled fisherman under the tutelage 

of her husband. She loved 

snowshoeing and snowmobiling. 

She worked during World 

War II for the war effort, soldering 

radio wires for Sprague 

Electric in North Adams. She 

worked many jobs outside the 

home, but her favorite and longest 

was working at Sawmill 

Farms in Dover. This is where 

she began sewing for an interior 

decorator. She made drapes for 

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s home, as 

well as exclusive homes and resorts 

in England, Rhode Island, 

California, New York, Florida, 

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MILESTONES 

Births, deaths, and news of people from Windham County 

Early Childhood Teacher for 

Evening Care Program 

The teacher will be part of a team that provides 

high-quality early childhood education 

experiences for children enrolled in the early 

learning center. Minimum of CDA or AA in early 

childhood education, Bachelor’s degree preferred. 

Must have experience working with infant and 

toddlers in an early childhood setting. The 4 

STAR program serves children ages 6 weeks to 7 

years and operates evenings M-F. Also accepting 

applications for substitute teachers. 

More details: www.windhamchildcare.org 

Brattleboro Town School District 

Early Education Services 

Is now hiring! 

InfanT/ToDDlEr TEachEr 

Seeking motivated Early Childhood Educator to join 

our Brattleboro Early Head Start classroom team! 

Creative Curriculum framework. CSEFEL approach 

implemented. Brazelton’s Touchpoints approach 

guides practice. NAEYC accredited. Many opportunities 

for professional growth! Supportive atmosphere! 

Excellent benefits package! Requirements: Associates 

or Bachelors Degree in ECE/Child Development or a 

related field. Experience working with young children 

in a group setting. Solid understanding of child development. 

Strong team player! Screenings will begin 

immediately and continue until position is filled. 

Please go to www.ees-vt.org for application. 

Submit resume, letter of interest, college 

transcript copies, and three written references to: 

child Development assistant 

Early Education Services 

130 Birge Street 


St. Martin, and Vermont. She 

was always beginning new hobbies, 

including quilting at age 

79, oil painting, crafts, gardening, 

and harvesting blueberries 

and raspberries for her family. 

She was an avid reader right up 

to her death. She will be remembered 

for her quick wit, sense of 

humor, many contributions to 

charities, and her generosity to 

all. MEMORIAL INFORMATION: 

At her request, there were no 

services. She asked to be buried 

next to her husband by her four 

children. 

• Perry 

R i p l e y 

“ B u t c h ” 

Chase Jr., 72, 

of East Jamaica. 

Died Aug. 23 at 

home. Former 

husband of 

Donna Chase for 25 years. 

Father of Perry Ripley Chase III, 

Julie Faye Barrows, Marci Diane 

Barrows and Kenneth Mitchell 

Chase. Brother of William H. 

Chase, Richard Chase, and 

Peggy Carey. The son of the late 

Perry R. Chase Sr. and Helen 

Connolly Chase, he was a longtime 

resident of Wardsboro. He 

was a “Jack of All Trades,” and a 

master of many — first and foremost 

his amazing skills as carpenter 

that can be seen through 

the entire West River Valley. He 

loved to hunt, fish, and spend 

time with his family, never missing 

out on a good meal (and always 

having of seconds!) He was 

known as kind-hearted storyteller 

and was loved by all who knew 

him. His always positive perspective 

on life will be missed. 

MEMORIAL INFORMATION: A 

graveside service will be held 

Sept. 15 at 2 p.m. at Fairview 

Cemetary in Wardsboro. 

• David Michael 

DeFosses, 61, of Brattleboro. 

Died Aug. 21 at Dartmouth- 

Hitchcock Medical Center in 

Lebanon, N.H., following a period 

of failing health. Husband 

of Beverly (Ryder) DeFosses 

for 15 years. Father of Jimmy 

Merithew, and his wife, Laura, 

and Linda Prentice. Brother 

HELP 

WANTED 

To place your employment ad, 

call Nancy at (802) 246-6397 or 

email ads@commonsnews.org 

Early Education Services is an equal opportunity employer. 

We encourage applicants who could add diversity 

to our educational community. 


of Philip DeFosses, and his 

wife, Linda, of Franklin, N.H. 

Born in Franklin, N.H., the 

son of the late Victor and Doris 

(Thayer) DeFosses, he was 

raised in Franklin and Laconia, 

N.H. A graduate of Laconia 

High School, he went on to 

the New Hampshire Technical 

Institute in Concord, graduating 

with a degree in business. 

He was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis 

as a child. He was 

very courageous and did not 

let his physical disability stop 

him from achieving so much in 

his life. MEMORIAL INFORMA- 

TION : A Mass of Christian Burial 

was held Aug. 27 at St. Paul 

Church in Franklin, N.H., with 

burial in Holy Cross Cemetery 

in Franklin. Donations to the 

Palliative Care Program, Office 

of Development, DHMC, One 

Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, 

N.H. 

• Bernard J. “Bernie” 

Fleming, 73, of West 

Chesterfield, N.H. Died Aug. 19 

at home after a long battle with 

cancer. Husband of Geraldine 

(Smith) Fleming for 29 years. 

Father of Patrick Fleming 

of Hinsdale, N.H., Timothy 

Fleming and James Fleming of 

Brattleboro, Marybeth Fleming 

of Brattleboro, and Lynette 

Soucia of Marlborough, N.H. 

Brother of Joan Dudek of 

Dover, N.H., Pauline Hanley of 

Greenfield, Mass., and the late 

Patricia Reis and Mary Kathryn 

Simas. Born in Brattleboro, the 

son of the late Elsie (Geiger) 

and Joseph Fleming, he was the 

owner and operator of Fleming 

Funeral Home in Brattleboro. 

He took over the business from 

his father, which he ran for many 

years. As a funeral director in his 

life’s work, he assisted generations 

of many local families. He 

did this with tremendous care 

and respect through the difficult 

time following the loss of a 

loved one. He was also the owner 

and operator of the Fleming 

Ambulance Service. He enjoyed 

fishing, listening to music and 

had a deep abiding love for animals 

and nature. He found pleasure 

in spending time with family 

and friends, especially his grandchildren. 

In recent years, he appreciated 

the service and care of 

the Oncology Department at the 

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital 

and cherished the friendships 

established during this time. 

He was a communicant of St. 

Michael’s Catholic Church in 

Brattleboro. MEMORIAL IN- 

FORMATION : In keeping with 

his wishes, burial will be private. 

Donations to Brattleboro 

Memorial Hospital, Oncology 

Department, 17 Belmont Ave., 

Brattleboro, VT 05301, or to St. 

Michael’s Church, 47 Walnut 

St., Brattleboro, VT 05301. 

• Wayne Austin Plumb, 

63, of Whitingham. Died Aug. 

16 at home, after a determined 

battle with cancer. Husband of 

Thelma Stickney for nearly 39 

years. Father of Rebecca Longe 

and her husband, Richard, 

of Jacksonville; Leslie Plumb 

and her fiance, Rick Price, of 

Wilmington; and Amber Holland 

and her husband, Mitchell, of 

Readsboro. Brother of Theresa 

Oakes and her husband, 

Dennis, of Whitingham; and 

Tami Butler and her husband, 

Ken, of Jacksonville. Born in 

Whitingham, the son of Austin 

and the late Gloria (Russell) 

Plumb, he graduatedfrom 

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Whitingham High School. He 

served in the Air Force during 

the Vietnam War, and 

later worked for Yankee-Rowe 

Nuclear Power Plant in Rowe, 

Mass. as a security project manager 

for many years. He was a 

weapons expert, managing weapons 

training at Yankee-Rowe and 

was very successful at competition 

target shooting. He enjoyed 

woodworking and building furniture, 

as well as boating, fishing, 

muscle cars — especially 

Mustangs, and watching movies. 

In his earlier years, he was a very 

good bowler and auto mechanic. 

He cherished times with his family, 

especially family gatherings, 

enjoyed listening to the music 

of the 1960s, and was an avid 

reader. MEMORIAL INFORMA- 

TION : A funeral service was held 

Aug. 22 at Covey, Allen & Shea 

Funeral Home in Wilmington, 

with interment in the family 

lot in Sawdawga Cemetery in 

Whitingham. Donations to the 

American Cancer Society. 

• John A Rocray, 80, 

of Brattleboro. Died Aug. 

18 at home. Former husband 

of Barbara S. Rocray of 

Dummerston. Father of Polly 

K. Rocray of Concord, N.H. 

Brother of Samuel E. Rocray 

and his wife, Bernice, of Orleans, 

Mass., and Peter E. Lindvall and 

wife, Pamela, of Wilmington, 

Del., Bertha Rocray of York, 

Maine, the widow of his brother, 

David; and stepsister Jean L. 

O’Rourke of Waterbury. A 

graduate of Winchester, Mass., 

High School. Hebron Academy, 

Dartmouth College, and Cornell 

University Law School, he joined 

the Brattleboro law firm of Fitts 

and Olsen upon graduating from 

law school in 1957. During his 

distinguished 55-year career as 

a Brattleboro attorney, he was 

State’s Attorney for Windham 

County for 12 years and had his 

own law firm. Due to ill health, 

John closed his law practice 

in 2012. He was a long time 

member of the Vermont Bar 

Association, and was dedicated 

to his profession. He greatly valued 

his interactions and discussions 

with his colleagues. He 

especially enjoyed his work and 

the warm friendship and support 

of the Brattleboro Thai 

community. He was also known 

for his love of Shakespeare, the 

theatre, music and the opera. 

MEMORIAL INFORMATION: 

Funeral services were private. 

A reception in his honor will 

be held at the West Village 

Meeting House on Sunday, 

Sept. 23, at 3 p.m. Friends and 

colleagues are cordially invited. 

Donations to Latchis Arts, 

50 Main St., Brattleboro, VT 

05301. Condolences may be sent 

to Atamaniuk Funeral Home at 

www.atamaniuk.com. 

Births 

• In Burlington (Fletcher 

Allen Health Care), Aug. 9, 

2012, a daughter, Isabella 

Rose Charron , to Jennifer 

(Coburn) and Andrew Charron 

of Middlebury. 

College news 

• Carla Yudin of Guilford 

graduated with the Class of 2012 

at Roger Williams University in 

Bristol, R.I. Yudin received a 

B.A. in Psychology. 

• Meaghan Taylor of 

Wilmington was named to the 

Curry College Dean’s List for 

the Spring 2012 term. 

CAT LOST in EAST PuTnEy 

Small, white with muted 

calico/tiger markings. 

11 years old, blind in one 

eye, feisty, wearing old 

collar with tags, will be 

very thirsty. Missing since 

Friday, July 6 from Lower 

Cassidy Rd., near East 

Putney Brook Rd. & Route 

5. Her name is Ramona. 

Any info, please call 

802-387-1194 or 

802-380-5567 

(1939) and law degrees (1942) 

from Harvard University. 

In August 1941, a year before 

his graduation from law 

school, he married Sarah 

Alden “Aldie” Derby, a 

granddaughter of President 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

During World War II, he 

served in the Army from 1942 

to 1946 as a major in a field 

artillery unit. 

The Gannetts came to 

Brattleboro in 1946. He 

became a member of the 

Vermont bar the following 

year, and embarked on a 60year 

legal career. 

In the early days, he was 

a law partner with James L. 

Oakes, who later served as 

Vermont’s Attorney General 

and as a U.S. District Court 

judge. 

A longtime Republican, 

Gannett’s political career began 

in 1952, when he attended 

his first Republican National 

Convention as a delegate for 

Dwight D. Eisenhower. The 

experience inspired him to 

run for office. 

He was elected to 

the Vermont House of 

Representatives, serving between 

1953 and 1959 and 

sitting on the Judiciary and 

Appropriations committees. 

A good friend 

It was during that time 

that Cummings arrived in 

Brattleboro. When he and his 

wife Ann moved into the area 

in 1956, Gannett was one of 

the members of the local legal 

fraternity who helped get 

him started. 

“He provided a good role 

model to follow in my day-today 

living,” Cummings said. 

“Over the years, there were a 

lot of things that I did because 

Bob wanted me to do them. 

I’ll always be indebted to Bob 

and Aldie for being such ardent 

supporters of me and 

Ann over the years.” 

Gannett took time off from 

the Legislature to tend to his 

local legal practice, but he 

eventually returned to the 

Statehouse and served 10 

terms in the Vermont Senate 

between 1973 and 1993. 

There, he sat on the 

Finance, General and Military 

Affairs, Institutions, and 

Transportation committees. 

“They called him ‘The 

Silver Fox,’ because he had 

so much skill in getting bills 

passed,” said WTSA Radio 

News Director Tim Johnson, 

who covered Gannett for most 

of his Senate career. “He was 

thoughtful, and respectful of 

other people’s views, but he 

was forthright about his own.” 

One of Gannett’s big legislative 

accomplishments was 

creating the representative 

town meeting form of government 

in Brattleboro in 

1959. He served as a Town 

Meeting Representative from 

the town’s first meeting until 

last year, when he stepped 

down. 

“He wanted to come to 

every Town Meeting,” said 

Cummings. “It was important 

to him to be there and 

participate.” 

Gannett’s love for Town 

Meeting shaped his philosophy 

of government. 

“I have often said that 

if we in Montpelier, in our 

Statehouse, cannot make the 

democratic process work, nobody 

can,” Gannett said in 

an oral history done with the 

Vermont Folklife Center a few 

years ago. 

“And I think we do,” he 

continued. “And I think one 

of the main reasons why we 

do is because the town meeting 

process back home, we 

carry forward and apply it in 

the Statehouse, where people 

have an opportunity to express 

their opinion.” 

Looking back on his career 

at the Statehouse, Gannett 

said that “the process, [in] 

which I was a piece, was a 

positive one, a fair one. [...] 

Ours is the way it should be.” 

GraceCottage Townshend,VT 

www.gracecottage.org w 365-7357 

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HOSPITAL 

■ Gannett FROM SECTION FRONT 

We Go Beyond Patient Care 

Because of the emphasis on 

local government and public 

participation, Gannett said 

that “the Statehouse is not that 

faraway capital that is out of 

touch or out of reach.” 

Cummings said that 

while Gannett was a proud 

Republican, “he was also a 

man who sought out the best 

ideas regardless of party. He 

was the go-to guy when you 

wanted to be heard and have 

an advocate.” 

“Even up to this year’s 

session, members of the 

Legislature sought out Bob’s 

advice, because he was such a 

good sounding board and had 

good common sense that people 

looked up to,” Cummings 

added. 

“He set the tone for the 

chamber,” said state Sen. 

Vincent Illuzzi, R-Essex- 

Orleans, who served with 

Gannett between 1981 and 

1993. “The Senate is a different 

place now than it was 

when Bob served, and I miss 

that.” 

“Bob was the conscience 

of the Senate,” said 

state Sen. William Doyle, 

R-Washington, a member of 

that chamber since 1969. 

“He never went in for heavy 

blows or floor debate,” Doyle 

said. “If he had a problem with 

a bill, he’d much rather speak 

privately with the sponsor, and 

suggest ways to improve it.” 

“He did his work without 

press releases and without 

taking credit,” Doyle added. 

“He preferred to give others 

the credit when something was 

accomplished.” 

Behind the 

scenes 

Gannett also spent much 

time in the nonprofit sector. 

He was a corporator and 

past president of Brattleboro 

Memorial Hospital, a former 

trustee of the Brattleboro 

Retreat, former board member 

of the United Way of 

Windham County, and a former 

director of the Vermont 

Community Foundation. 

He also served as director 

of National Life Insurance 

Co. and as a trustee for the 

American College of Probate 

Counsel. He was also a founding 

member of the Brattleboro 

Rotary Club in 1950. 

His wife, Aldie, who died in 

1999 at the age of 78, helped 

establish the Long Trail and 

hiked its entire length between 

1970 and 1976. She led the 

Green Mountain Club’s efforts 

to acquire title or permanent 

easements for the length 

of the trail, and Gannett provided 

much help for those 

efforts when he was in the 

Senate. 

“It may sound trite, but Bob 

always said that his proudest 

accomplishment was marrying 

Aldie, and his three children,” 

said Cummings. 

Gannett’s last public appearance 

came on March 

30, when he was honored 

by Illuzzi and Doyle with 

a Senate resolution during 

a special hearing of the 

Economic Development committee 

in Brattleboro. 

“The most satisfying years 

for me were the years in the 

Statehouse,” Gannett said that 

day. “I miss it, and I would 

love to meet with you all up 

in Montpelier.” 

“I hoped we would see him 

again,” said Doyle. “It’s still 

sad to think that was the last 

time.” 

Cummings remembers 

when his friends gathered in 

town for a “roast” of Gannett. 

“One of his friends, Jack 

Burgess, said that ‘roasting 

Bob Gannett is like trying to 

roast Mother Teresa.’ Bob 

was that kind of guy. He’ll be 

missed by the town in ways 

that many of the people in 

town don’t realize yet. He 

was such a great advocate for 

Brattleboro.” 

Cummings said that the 

family is still working on funeral 

arrangements. 

“I “We remember are so lucky when to my have son brought Grace 

me to the ER at Grace Cottage Hospital. 

Cottage so nearby and staffed 

They saved my life.” 

with such wonderful people.” 

~ Warren Bartlett, East Dover, VT 

~ June Dibble, Newfane, VT


BR ATTLeBoRo 

Planning Commission gets an earful 

from public on draft of new Town Plan 



BRATTLEBORO—With 

comments addressing issues of 

zoning changes and economic 

development issues, members 

of the public had their chance at 

Monday’s Planning Commission 

meeting to comment on the town 

plan in progress — “an entirely 

new plan” that will replace the 

town’s 2008 document, according 

to a Planning Commission 

report. 

The Town Plan serves as a 

guide to boards and commissions, 

like the Selectboard or 

Development Review Board, 

when reviewing development 

proposals on the proposed 2012 

town plan. 

Brattleboro’s current town 

plan expires in February 2013, 

and state statute requires towns 

to update their plans every five 

years. 

This 2012 plan also “identifies 

current conditions and gathers 

public input as a resource for 

future public spending on community 

facilities, roads, utilities, 

parks, housing assistance, economic 

development, and other 

municipal programs and services,” 

wrote the commission in 

its report. 

“Data and information related 

to the town, its residents, 

housing, and economy have 

been updated reflecting current 

data from the 2010 U.S. Census 

and State agencies,” the report 

continued. 

One of the state’s overall planning 

goals that the town plan 

must be congruent with is establishing 

a coordinated, comprehensive 

planning process and 

policy framework to guide decisions 

by municipalities, regional 

planning commissions, and state 

agencies. 

BRATTLEBORO—As a 

hospital founded 178 years ago 

with a $10,000 bequest, the 

Brattleboro Retreat is a testament 

to how philanthropy can 

chart the course of history. It is 

with both a nod to this history 

and an eye toward the future that 

the Brattleboro Retreat hosts a 

gala event on Saturday, Sept. 15. 

The Lawton Hall 100th 

Anniversary Gala will serve to 

commemorate the centennial anniversary 

of the Retreat’s iconic 

Lawton Hall. The event will also 

honor community leader Larry 

Cassidy and launch a major 

fundraising initiative aimed at 

securing a successful future for 

the Retreat. 

Tickets are now on sale for 

the Gala. Appetizers and drinks 

on the Retreat’s Great Lawn will 

begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by 

dinner and entertainment inside 

the historic Lawton Hall. 

The primary purpose of the 

event is to officially launch the 

Brattleboro Retreat Endowment 

Fund, which was established earlier 

this year to generate income 

for the Retreat’s mission and programs 

in perpetuity. 

“The Brattleboro Retreat 

started with a charitable gift over 

175 years ago,” said CEO and 

President Dr. Robert Simpson, 

“yet over the course of almost 

two centuries, the hospital has 

never formally established an 

endowment fund. Today, we are 

in a position of strength to take 

this important step in our philanthropy 

program and focus on 

planning for a successful future.” 

In the months leading up to the 

Lawton Hall 100th Anniversary 

Gala, the Brattleboro Retreat’s 

staff, leadership and trustees 

have been meeting with supporters 

and with just a month 

before the gala event, these efforts 

have already secured more 

than $50,000 in charitable gifts 

to seed the Endowment Fund. 

Proceeds from the Lawton 

Hall gala will also benefit the 

Brattleboro Retreat Endowment 

Fund. Additionally, a $25,000 

challenge grant from the Thomas 

Thomson Trust is underwriting 

the endowment initiative. 

In addition to highlighting the 

launch of the Endowment Fund, 

the 2012 Anna Marsh Award will 

be presented to honoree Larry 

Cassidy. 

Named for the founder of the 

Brattleboro Retreat, the Anna 

Marsh Award was established in 

2009 to recognize individuals for 

their advocacy on behalf of people 

with mental illness, addiction, 

or both. Cassidy served on the 

Retreat’s Board of Trustees from 

Whose vision? 

Public comment from approximately 

10 people who attended 

an Aug. 27 meeting 

predominately focused on the 

merits of Planned Unit Overlay 

Districts (PUDs), promoting 

density (non-sprawl) development, 

preserving the town’s rural 

areas, and creating economic 

opportunity. 

Spoon Agave described his 

impression of the draft as looking 

like the 2008 Town Plan. He 

suggested that the commission 

include an analysis in the current 

plan to look at which portions 

proved effective or not. 

Agave said that, in general, the 

goals sounded vague, unmeasurable, 

and not prioritized. 

Agave said the plan needed 

to provide guidance and a “plan 

that will give us an actual strategy 

and an understanding where 

to go.” 

The town charter requires the 

Selectboard to report at the end 

of the year on what progress the 

board had made regarding the 

town plan’s goals, he added. 

Commission Chair James 

Valente said specific suggestions 

will be taken up at the commission’s 

September meeting. But, 

he said, if the plan were a general 

five-year plan for action, Agave 

would be correct about the goals 

section. 

However, said Valente, more 

specific action steps “usurps” the 

Selectboard’s domain. Instead, 

the plan must guide the Planning 

Commission on land use. 

Speaking for himself, Valente 

said he was “loathe to set an 

agenda beyond land use” in the 

Town Plan. 

Agave felt that asking for 

specifics was not usurping the 

Selectboard’s authority. 

“This is our town, not the 

Selectboard’s town,” he said. 

“It’s not up to the Selectboard 

Retreat to host fundraising gala 

2004 to 2011. He stepped down 

last fall to focus on Vermont’s 

recovery in the wake of Tropical 

Storm Irene. 

“As our friends in the community 

have seen, the Retreat has 

experienced a tremendous turnaround 

in the past five years,” 

said Simpson. “A key part of 

this transformation was the overhaul 

of our admissions process 

and few people were more instrumental 

to this success than 

Larry, who brought incredible 

insight and dedication to helping 

us redesign admissions. In the 

spirit of the Anna Marsh Award, 

Larry truly exemplifies advocacy 

for those struggling with mental 

health and addictions issues.” 

According to the Gala’s 

Event Committee Chair, Bette 

Abrams, the Lawton Hall 100th 

Anniversary Gala will be a simple, 

yet elegant affair. 

Make a friend 

for life 

Available Pets for Adoption 

Hi there, my name is Naomi. I 

came all the way from New York 

with my two precious kittens. 

Now that my motherhood days 

are over, I’m on the prowl for a 

new home. I’m a very loving and 

affectionate young girl. I’d be 

super happy in almost any home, 

if I’m given the proper introduction 

to new animals and plenty of 

time to adjust. Come in soon to fall in love! 

Hi there. My name is Anomaly. 

My care-givers here at the humane 

society say I was a “stray.” 

They think I must have had 

a home at one point though, 

because I’m very friendly and 

affectionate with people. When 

you visit me you may notice I’m 

missing some patches of hair. 

This is due to a food and flea 

allergy I arrived with. Because of this I will need an ongoing 

special diet (Hills Science Diet Z/D) and consistent 

flea prevention. I don’t seem to mind the other cats here, 

so I’d probably be okay living with another cat so long as 

we have a properly paced (i.e. slow) introduction. 


to tell us what type of town we 

ought to have.” 

Selectboard member Dora 

Bouboulis turned her attention 

to the plan’s economic development 

chapter. 

She said that the goal to increase 

funding of Community 

Development Organizations 

(CDOs), such as the Brattleboro 

Development Credit Corp., 

needed work. 

In Bouboulis’ view, the goal 

was more about “maximizing the 

opportunities for funding,” and 

needed a qualifier as to what the 

goal meant and where the money 

would come from. 

Bouboulis also strongly urged 

the Planning Commission to 

oppose the suggestion to eliminate 

the town’s requirement for 

conducting an economic impact 

assessment for businesses operating 

in spaces larger than 65,000 

square feet. 

The economic assessment is 

about the effect a large retail establishment 

will have on smaller 

businesses in town and community 

as a whole, she said. 

The ordinance, she said, was 

developed after Home Depot 

had opened a now-defunct store 

on Putney Road in Brattleboro. 

Bouboulis did agree, given 

the differences between New 

Hampshire and Vermont, that 

the Brattleboro area is “not ripe 

for large-scale development” like 

big-box stores. 

In a separate interview, 

Valente said that the draft town 

plan suggests getting rid of the 

assessment. However, since a 

zoning ordinance calls for the assessment, 

that rule would have to 

change as well. 

Mary Durland, a resident of 

the Glen Park Mobile Home 

Park, asked about the plan’s section 

on promoting density development 

in order to protect the 

town’s more rural areas. 

Specifically, Durland spoke 

“We are really looking forward 

to celebrating with our friends, to 

thanking our supporters, to honoring 

Larry’s contributions to the 

Retreat,” said Abrams. “It’s going 

to be a fun and special night 

for our guests.” 

Fewer than 150 seats are available 

for the evening. This limited 

seating will create a more 

intimate atmosphere than the 

Retreat’s 175th Celebration in 

2009, which made a splash in the 

community with its enormous 

tent and hundreds of guests. 

“We aren’t looking to re-create 

the 175th,” said Abrams, “but 

we do promise a fabulous party 

and we aren’t ruling out the possibility 

of a few surprises!” 

Tickets are available 

through the Retreat’s Office of 

Development for $100 per person. 

Seating for this event is extremely 

limited and tickets are 

Windham County 

humane SoCiety 

916 West River Road, Brattleboro, VT 

802-254-2232 View all at: wchs4pets.org 

This space is graciously sponsored by: 

onestopcountrypet.com 

Dalilah here everybody! I am a beautiful 

Newfoundland mix who just loves going 

for walks in the woods, lounging in my 

kiddie pool on hot summer afernoons, 

and playing with doggie friends. I am an 

older girl, and still have a lot of love to 

give! I enjoy people of all ages, and if I 

were to live with children, I’d like them 

to be easygoing like me. Cats and dogs 

alike are friends of mine, so I’d be happy 

to meet anybody you have in mind. If I 

sound like your kind of girl, come on in 

and see me! Love, Dalilah 

about the plan’s proposal to 

promote “infilling,” developing 

vacant parcels within urban 

areas, around Route 9 in West 

Brattleboro and Route 5 in the 

Putney Road area. 

“I don’t particularly think that 

these are nice areas to put housing 

in,” she said. 

“If you live along Route 9 you 

live on one side or the other, you 

go between the two at hazard to 

your life,” she said. 

As a bike owner, Durland has 

decided against biking the three 

miles into town because “it’s 

not safe.” 

If the town wants to increase 

housing in these areas, it had to 

solve the traffic problem of fumes 

and physical danger, she said. 

“Otherwise, it’s all pie-in-thesky,” 

Durland said. 

Adam Hubbard described the 

document as “incredible” and 

commended the work. 

Hubbard, a landscape architect 

and project manager, is 

working with the Brattleboro 

Housing Authority to develop a 

new affordable housing facility 

of more than 150 units. 

Downtown’s mixed-use development 

pattern grew based 

on the needs of residents. In the 

current plan, however, Hubbard 

said he saw a lot of single-use 

planning and doing away with 

Planned Unit Development 

Overlay Districts. 

PUDs allow for multi-use zoning 

within a larger planned zone, 

like residential housing within an 

area zoned for commercial use. 

According to Valente, the 

draft town plan suggests limiting 

PUDs, now sanctioned by 

state statute and allowed townwide, 

to only one zone in town 

The draft plan’s PUD suggestion 

would not be inconsistent with 

state law, Valente said. 

Hubbard worried that limiting 

land use could hinder the town. 

There might be places in town 

expected to sell out soon. 

Donors also have the option of 

becoming “Inaugural Donors” 

to the Endowment Fund by 

contributing a gift of $1,000 or 

greater. Inaugural Donors are 

invited to attend the Gala as 

guests of the Retreat (subject to 

availability of seating) and will 

be recognized with a permanent 

plaque and mention in future 

Brattleboro Retreat publications. 

To purchase tickets or 

make a gift to the Endowment 

Fund, contact Biz Dana at the 

Brattleboro Retreat Office of 

Development at 802-258-4318 

or bdana@brattlebororetreat. 

org (mce_host/site/editsystem05a/ 

bdana@brattlebororetreat.org). For 

more information about the 

Lawton Hall 100th Anniversary 

Gala, visit brattlebororetreat.org/ 

lawton_hall_gala. 

My name is Penny. I am a very sweet and quiet 

little girl who loves to be around calm people 

and pets like me. Being curled up in someone’s 

loving arms is where I want to be, but I do like 

a good walk and playing with dogs my own 

size. I think cats are interesting and a little bit 

intimidating,so maybe a home with outside cats 

would be better for me. Children around 10 

years and up I prefer, just because I feel comfortable 

when I’m in a calm environment. If you like 

my photos and what I have to say, please come 

in and see me. I’m always ready for a good cuddle! Love, Penny 

648 Putney Road 

Brattleboro, VT 

802.257.3700 

149 Emerald St 

Keene, NH 

603.352.9200 

where people could do something 

creative but are stopped 

by zoning that prohibits those 

uses, he said. 

Making things easier for housing 

and business should be high 

priority, he said. 

Hubbard noted that the bulk 

of Brattleboro’s tax base, about 

64 percent, rests on residents 

rather than commercial enterprises. 

About 50 percent of the 

housing units in town are subsidized, 

he added. 

“Take those out, and you’re 

asking some 20 percent of housing 

residents to foot the bill,” 

he said. 

Tim Cuthbertson, chair of 

the Development Review Board 

and a business owner, also spoke 

about PUDs. 

In his opinion, PUDs are 

designed to help where conventional 

zoning doesn’t fit an 

application. 

“We have to provide for uses 

outside” the regular zoned use, 

he said. 

PUDs still have to conform 

to the town plan, he said. But 

Cuthbertson added that removing 

a planning tool like PUDs removes 

flexibility in the realm of 

economic development. 

The town never knows what 

economic development opportunities 

passes by after people 

look at its zoning, he said, asserting 

that Act 250, the state’s land 

use and development act, often 

sends people to New Hampshire. 

DUmmeRsTon 

DUMMERSTON—Good 

weather and no hidden repair 

problems allowed a covered 

bridge to reopen, a result 

that pleasantly surprised the 

Selectboard last week. 

On Aug. 21, the board met 

for a special morning meeting at 

the West Dummerston Covered 

Bridge for one last check of 

repair work done by Renaud 

Brothers of Vernon. Satisfied 

with what they saw, the board 

reopened the bridge to traffic at 

the end of the day. 

Renaud Brothers, charged 

with repairing an erosion problem 

with the historic bridge’s 

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“It’s paramount that our plan 

encourages economic stability 

and growth in our community,” 

he said. 

Some areas shouldn’t be a 

PUD, said Bouboulis, saying 

that developers might use this 

method to circumvent zoning. 

Neighbors have little input 

and rights once a project starts, 

she added. 

The process 

Valente said that the process 

to update the plan, first adopted 

in 1963, is nearing an end. 

Updating the plan has taken four 

years, according to the commission’s 

report. 

The process has included multiple 

public meetings, drafts, and 

work by small committees, said 

Valente. The commission also 

held informational sessions at 

the West Brattleboro Fire Station 

and at the Municipal Center. 

By early September, the commission 

will incorporate the 

changes suggested by the public 

and present the plan to the 

Selectboard. 

Valente said that planning 

commissioners will review the 

list of suggestions and address 

them at their Sept. 10 meeting. 

After the 30 days notice period, 

the Selectboard will hold 

two public hearings. 

That board will then hold 

its own public hearings before 

approving the plan, likely in 

October. 

Covered bridge 

reopens 

Repair work is finished 

ahead of schedule 

wing walls, completed the project 

well ahead of the previously 

forecast finish date of 

mid-September. 

As a result, contingency plans 

to reroute school buses during 

the bridge’s closure were shelved. 

Also, the swimming hole underneath 

the bridge and the parkand-ride 

area for commuters 

have both reopened. 

The repair work to the bridge 

cost $234,820 to complete. The 

cost was covered by a transportation-enhancement 

grant 

by the Vermont Agency of 

Transportation. 

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A6 The Commons • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 

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BeLLoWs FALLs 

n Eviction FROM SECTIOn FROnT 

ordinance violation earlier this 

year. 

Cullenen laid blame for the 

evictions at the feet of the tenants 

for “full dumpsters,” then 

with a landlord “we can’t find.” 

No warning 

“The first I heard about [the 

eviction] was two weeks ago,” 

said third-floor tenant Crystal 

Long. 

Long, who has been keeping 

up on her rent, said she was 

getting some money at the beginning 

of the month, but “not 

enough” for first month, last 

month and a deposit. 

She has one child younger 

than 18 who will be going to a 

motel “for a few nights” with her. 

Her other son, who just turned 

18, will be “couch surfing” with 

friends, taking the family dog 

with him, a separation which visibly 

upset Long’s youngest when 

the time came for good-byes as 

the family split up on Green 

Street on August 23. 

Lisa Pitcher of Our Place 

Drop In Center noted that in 

Vermont’s tight housing market 

“even if I had six months to 

find a place to live, I would have 

a hard time finding one. And I 

would have the money. These 

people cannot afford to rehouse 

themselves.” 

Vermont ranks 13th highest 

among rents in the nation, and 

in Windham County with a population 

of 44,513, an estimated 

5,476, or 12.3 percent, live below 

the poverty line. Statewide, 

11.1 percent of Vermonters live 

in poverty, while nationally, the 

rate is 13.8 percent. 

“Many more are struggling to 

meet their needs even with one 

or two incomes in the household,” 

Southeasten Vermont 

Community Action (SEVCA) 

Planning and Development 

Director Lisa F. Bloch explained. 

Pitcher said one tenant told 

her that Howard said to “go 

to the Springfield Housing 

Authority, where she was under 

the impression she would be 

able to find housing. They told 

her to come back when she was 

evicted.” 

Additionally, splitting up families 

can be traumatic for the 

youngest members, creating a 

scar, Pitcher said, “they can carry 

for a lifetime. Uprooting young 

kids is never a good idea.” 

When tenants were asked an 

hour before their eviction if they 

had been in touch with SEVCA, 

the reply was “yes, but they 

couldn’t really help us.” 

“They had plenty of notice... 

almost two and a half weeks” 

said Cullenen last week, when 

asked whether the tenants had 

been able to find alternative 

housing. “It’s not in the municipal 

jurisdiction” to coordinate 

agencies for housing, he 

explained. 

“We hope that the agencies 

that deal with that stuff, the interfaith 

groups, housing agencies 

who help people like that, step 

up” to help, he said. 

Asked whether or not the town 

service officer had been contacted 

to help find them housing, 

he said he had received an email 

from Ann DiBernardo that as of 

Aug. 22, “no one had.” 

Pitcher said that all the housing 

vouchers have been given 

out. “There aren’t any more,” 

she said. 

That’s mostly as a result of 

Tropical Storm Irene and the 

people who needed housing because 

they had lost their homes. 

Directly across the street, Pat 

and Alan Fowler’s well maintained 

yellow home overlooks 

46 Green St. 

Elsesser said “all the neighbors 

are really nice.” But why 

the neighborhood did not come 

together as it did for victims of 

Tropical Storm Irene to help the 

20 people who became homeless 

last week is something of a 

mystery. 

Elsesser sees the building as 

one of the village’s grand old 

houses. He says the house is 

not run down on the inside, 

and removing the porch would 

have been simple, and “under 

$5,000.” 

Dreaming, he said, “I’d love 

to see a homeowners association 

come together and buy the 

building, renovate and refurbish 

it, and then run the building with 

rules. And when someone breaks 

the rules, then there are consequences,” 

Elsesser suggested. 

But the reality last Thursday 

afternoon, as the tenants of 42 

Green St. scattered, clutching 

what belongings they could 

carry with them, is that victims 

of natural disasters are not seen 

in the same light as those whose 

landlord failed to fix health code 

violations. Children, pets, and 

parents are expected to fend for 

themselves. 

“It’s sad and just plain embarrassing 

that this kind of thing 

ALLISOn TEAGUE/THE COMMOnS 

The entrance to 42 Green St. in Bellows Falls is 

boarded up. 

goes on in our village, just tossing 

people onto the street like that,” 

said a woman walking her dog as 

she watched tenants, young and 

old, struggling to get what they 

could out of the house before it 

was sealed up by village officials. 

What now? 

Bloch said that in the past 

year, SEVCA provided housing 

assistance to 1,146 individuals, 

and prevented 1,034 from becoming 

homeless. More than 

half of the needs addressed by 

SEVCA’s Family Services staff 

were housing-related. 

“We pride ourselves on having 

developed positive relationships 

with about 80 to 90 different 

landlords in the two counties 

[Windham and Windsor] in 

general,” she said. “But finding 

available quality affordable housing 

remains a challenge overall in 

Vermont. The need is so great 

that it can take time for a space 

to become available.” 

In regard to the Green Street 

eviction, Bloch noted, “With an 

emergency situation like this, 

even if someone can couch surf 

or get put up in a hotel or shelter, 

the question remains — what do 

they do with their stuff or how do 

they transport it (quickly) in the 

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meantime? This is where community 

partnerships would come 

in; to try to find donated secure 

storage space … it’s a complex 

problem we have to try to work 

through.” 

SEVCA Family Services 

Director Pat Burke said she 

knows a woman who has a job, 

but has to sleep in her truck. 

“Housing is tough and its getter 

tougher, ” she said, adding 

that, anecdotally, she has noticed 

more and more conversations 

with co-workers around 

the increased number of people 

needing help finding housing in 

“the last two months.” 

She cannot put a finger on the 

cause, however. “The economy? 

Tight housing in Vermont? Low 

wages and not enough jobs?” 

she asked. 

But other than the social service 

agencies responding and 

doing what they could to find 

temporary housing for some, 

none for others, and no assurances 

of anything more permanent, 

20 more people are 

being added to the Rockingham- 

Bellows Falls homeless list, with 

barely three months to go until 

temperatures are expected to fall 

below freezing. 

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A8 The Commons • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 

n Election FROM SECTION FRONT 

happy and amazed Toleno said, 

“I’m feeling a little dizzy.” 

He described his win as a 

“team win for me” and thanked 

his campaign volunteers and 

his campaign manager, Don 

Webster. 

Toleno said he would plan his 

next steps after a good night’s 

sleep. 

Now a caterer, Toleno has 

worked for 18 years as a chef and 

operated the former Riverview 

restaurant for 11 years. His 

wife Susan Webster-Toleno 

is also from Brattleboro. The 

couple has two boys, Owen and 

Malcolm. 

In a phone interview, 

O’Connor said of the loss, “I’m 

doing fine. I’ve been in this business 

long enough. This isn’t my 

first rodeo, as they say.” 

Even though the unofficial 

results were close, with 29 votes 

between the two, O’Connor said 

she wouldn’t call for a recount. 

O’Connor said working for 

Gov. Peter Shumlin and former 

Gov. Howard Dean taught her 

that “you win some, you lose 

some, and look where they are 

now.” 

She said that this was the first 

campaign that she ran for herself. 

“I found that there are so 

many great people in this town. 

It [the support] really meant a lot 

to me. I know I sound so sappy, 

but it’s actually true,” she said. 

O’Connor was not sure what 

her next step would be, but said 

in the short-term, she needed 

to shift her energy back to promoting 

her recent book, Do The 

Impossible, about the Dean presidential 

campaign in 2004. 

Other races 

In Windham-3, incumbents 

Carolyn Partridge and Matt 

Trieber held on to their seats, 

turning back a stiff challenge 

from Bellows Falls attorney 

Chris Moore. 

At press time, with five of 

six towns reporting, Trieber 

led with 684 votes, followed by 

Partridge with 671, and Moore 

with 551. Moore ran a close race 

in Rockingham, but Trieber and 

Partridge got more votes in the 

other towns in the district. 

In the Democratic race for 

state senate, incumbents Jeanette 

White and Peter Galbraith 

cruised to victory over challenger 

Mary Cain. 

At press time, with nearly all 

the county’s votes tallied, White 

received 3,043 votes, Galbraith 

2,703, and Cain 824. 

White and Galbraith will run 

unopposed in November, as will 

Partridge and Trieber. 

In the only contested statewide 

race in the Democratic 

primary, the final result between 

Chittenden County State’s 

Attorney T.J. Donovan and incumbent 

Attorney General Bill 

Sorrell was too close to call at 

press time. 

With 95 percent of the statewide 

vote counted, Sorrell 

had a 20,639–20,020 lead on 

Donovan, and neither candidate 

would declare victory. 

The winner faces Republican 

candidate Jack McMullen, who 

was unopposed in his primary. 

The only contested statewide 

race on the Republican 

ballot saw Windsor businessman 

Jack MacGovern defeat H. 

Brooke Page for the nomination 

to take on incumbent U.S. Sen. 

Bernie Sanders in November. 

MacGovern received about 75 

percent of the vote. 

Outside the polls 

Candidates and those running 

unopposed sat outside 

the Brattleboro polls Tuesday 

waving signs and speaking with 

voters. 

Although running unopposed, 

incumbents Valerie Stuart, 

D-Windham-2-1, and Mollie 

Burke, P/D-Windham-2-2, said 

they came to the polls because 

they didn’t want to take their 

positions for granted. Both said 

that doing so provided a good 

opportunity to speak with voters. 

“If people elect you, you have 

the responsibility to be involved,” 

said Stuart. 

Stuart, who serves on the 

House Education Committee, 

said voters asked her about 

eduction issues. Burke said she 

spoke with a man working on 

encouraging more use of powerassisted 

bicycles in town. Burke 

said she admired the man’s work 

because grassroots efforts grow 

into governmental support and 

programs. 

Voters also stopped to ask 

White questions on the issues 

of property taxes, health-care 

reform, and medical marijuana 

dispensaries. 

After Cappy read the unofficial 

results, White said, “I’m really 

excited.” White added that 

she didn’t want to take her position 

as State Senator for granted. 

Galbraith also said he was 

“very happy” with the results. 

Cain said, “A great day, 

couldn’t be better,” over her 

shoulder as she walked briskly 

to her car. When questioned if 

voters had asked her about any 

OlGA PETERS/THE COMMONS 

Tristan Toleno, the 

unofficial winner in 

District 3. 

RANDOlPH T. HOlHUT/THE COMMONS 

Kate O’Connor, 

a Democratic 

House candidate in 

Brattleboro’s District 3, 

stands outside the polls 

on Tuesday. 

issues, Cain, still walking, said, 

“I’ve been here all day.” 

Low turnout 

statewide 

Turnout was extremely light 

for the primary around the state. 

Secretary of State Jim Condos 

estimated that between 8 and 10 

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percent of Vermont’s 446,000 

registered voters would be casting 

ballots. 

By comparison, even with a 

five-way race for the Democratic 

gubernatorial nomination in 

2010, statewide turnout was only 

24 percent. 

This is the second primary 

election that Vermont has held 

in August. In 2010, the primary 

voting date was changed from 

the traditional second Tuesday 

in September to the last Tuesday 

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in August. 

The date was moved up to 

comply with a federal law that 

calls for absentee ballots to be 

mailed out at least 45 days before 

the November general election to 

make it easier for overseas voters 

to cast their ballots on time. 

Turnouts in the 2006 and 

2008 primaries both were under 

10 percent, and at the time, 

critics of moving the primary to 

August feared that summertime 

voting would even further reduce 

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turnout at the polls. 

The highest voter turnout for a 

Vermont primary in the past two 

decades — 30 percent — came 

in 2000, prompted by the passage 

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contested primaries for governor 

and U.S. Senate. 

Commons News Editor Randolph 

T. Holhut contributed to this report. 

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THE COMMONS • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 THE ARTS SECTION B1 B 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 • page B1 

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT 

Water power 

subject of 

historical 

documentary 

Discussion, images 

of Windham County 

mills, will follow film 

at Next Stage Arts 

PUTNEY—Like Sackett’s 

Brook in Putney and Whetstone 

Brook in Brattleboro, the Stevens 

River winds its way through 

Peacham and Barnet, down to 

the Connecticut River. 

Just as in older times, when 

the streams in Windham County 

powered mills, water worked for 

Barnet’s farmers until the 1980s, 

with Ben Thresher’s mill being 

one of the last one remaining. 

That mill’s story will be told in 

Putney in a special presentation 

about water power by the Putney 

Historical Society. 

On Thursday, Aug. 30, at 6:30 

p.m. the film Ben Thresher’s Mill 

will be shown at NextStage Arts, 

Why Buy at Brattleboro Subaru? 

The SmarT ChoiCe 

15 Kimball Hill. 

The story of Ben Thresher and 

his mill was captured in 1981 

by a pair of New England filmmakers 

— John Karol of Orford, 

N.H., and Michel Chalufour 

of Bath, Maine. Their intimate 

documentary captured Thresher 

at work in his mill, modifying 

tools; making a cattle watering 

tub; showing how he harnesses 

the power of the river with pulleys 

and shafts to run his saws, 

trip hammer, planer, and forge 

blower. 

After Thresher died in 

a road accident, the mill 

passed to Steven Hogan of 

brattleborosubaru.com 

■ SEE MILLS, PAGE B2 

Local musicians 

to play at the 

Guilford Fair 

GUILFORD—The Guilford 

Fair kicks off on Saturday, Sept. 

1, with live music from 1 to 3 

p.m. with the band American 

Pop. 

American Pop features Kevin 

Parry on guitar, George Adair 

on bass, and Richard Mayer 

on drums. Their song list includes 

radio hits from the 1950s, 

1960s and 1970s. They might 

also channel their alter-ego, 

“Classic Country,” for some 

old fashioned country and western 

music. 

A full day of music is on tap 

for Sunday, Sept. 2, starting at 

10 a.m. with the Residential Jazz 

Band directed by Pam Pellerin. 

At 11 a.m., the Howling Kettles, 

featuring Sam Moss and Jackson 

Emmer, play old time string 

band music with a modern twist. 

At 12:30 p.m., Three Way Street 

presents its bluegrass, swing, 

and rock music show with Lisa 

Brande on fiddle and guitar, 

Mark Trickka on mandolin, and 

Kevin Parry on guitar. Electric 

Fence winds up the day with its 

acoustic/electric mix featuring 

Jonny Sheehan on bass, Jeremy 

Holch on drums, Howard Weiss- 

Tisman on guitar, and Steve 

Carmichael on guitar. 

Monday, Sept. 3, also holds a 

full day of music with Nate and 

Trevor Paine starting out at 10 

a.m. with old-time fiddle music. 

Next is Corki and Ken at 11 a.m. 

Featuring Corki Demers and 

Ken Lively, this sibling group 

plays the best of acoustic classic 

rock tunes. 

The Stockwell Brothers take 

over at 12:30 p.m. to play their 

trademark bluegrass music, 

driven by brothers Bruce on 

Banjo, Barry on guitar, and Al 

on mandolin and bass. Then the 

Brattlyn Brothers close out the 

Fair with two sets starting at 3 

p.m. Although they are not really 

brothers, Brooklyn natives Joe 

Santry on guitar and Ken Storey 

on bass team up with drummer 

Richard Mayer and with 

this year’s Guilford Fair music 

producer Kevin Parry for some 

memorable classic rock ’n’ roll. 

For more information, call 

802-257-7428 or visit www. 

kevinparrymusic.com 

Wanting 

INA 

play looks 

VYTO STARINSKAS/RUTLAND HERALD 

Caitlin Kinnunen rehearses for Pregnancy Pact in Weston. 

By Richard Henke 

Vermont Associates for The Commons 

WESTON —Is 

teenage pregnancysomething 

to sing 

about? 

On Aug. 30, Weston Playhouse 

Theater Company 

(WPTC) will present the world 

premiere of Pregnancy Pact , a 

pop-rock musical with music by 

Julia Meinwald and book and 

lyrics by Gordon Leary. 

Rena Murman, former 

WPTC education director, 

said Pregnancy Pact was inspired 

by the sensationalized 

news story of an epidemic of 

teen pregnancies at Gloucester 

High School in Massachusetts 

several years ago, and concerns 

a group of teenage girls who 

GENE PARULIS 

Ron Karpius puts the 

finishing touches on a Chinese-influenced lantern 

outside his studio in West Brattleboro. He will welcome the public as part 

of the fourth annual Brattleboro-West Arts Open Studio Tour on Sept. 29 

and 30. 


decided to become single mothers 

together. 

It’s all about “the motivations 

and dynamics of a group 

of high school girls who [at the 

same time] decide to get pregnant,” 

Murman said. 

“ Pregnancy Pact tells the story 

of 15-year-old Maddie who is 

devoted to her three best friends 

and they are to her,” she said. 

“So when Brynn gets pregnant, 

the friends all plan to 

have children and raise them 

together in their dream of a perfect 

life,” she added. 

“Their pact grows as other 

girls find out and want in. The 

bubble finally bursts when the 

teenagers’ secret is revealed, 

leaving each of the girls facing 

the hard realities of love, responsibility, 

and growing up.” 

It is the second musical to 

receive its world premiere at 

the Weston Playhouse. The 

BRATTLEBORO—The 

fourth annual Brattleboro- 

West Arts Open Studio 

Tour on Sept. 29 and 30 

will feature two new studio 

spaces and one familiar site 

with a new look. 

As southern Vermont’s 

autumn colors grace the 

landscape, 16 local craftspeople 

and artists will 

open their doors to the 

public from 10 a.m. to 5 

p.m. each day. The tour will 

feature active demonstrations, 

with original craft and artwork 

on display and for sale at 13 

sites just off the beaten path in 

West Brattleboro, Marlboro, and 

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production will be directed by 

Joe Calarco, best known for his 

adaptation/direction of Shakespeare’s 

R & J , which ran for a 

year Off-Broadway and has become 

the longest running adaptation 

of Romeo and Juliet in 

New York history. It won the 

1998 Lucille Lortel Award for 

Outstanding Special Achievement 

in Theatre (akin to Off- 

Broadway’s Tony Award). 

Pregnancy Pact will feature 

a cast of young actors, including 

Caitlin Kinnunen of Spring 

Awakening and Jed Resnick of 

the first national tour of Rent 

and the Broadway cast of Avenue 

Q . 

Last year, Pregnancy Pact 

won WPTC’s 2011 New Musical 

Award. This is an award 

Weston created in 2007 “to 

provide new writers accessible 

means of producing a demo recording, 

to develop the unique 

Dummerston. 

New stops on this year’s tour 

include the Mahalo Art Center 

at 972 Western Ave., and the studio 

of painter and metal sculptor 

Ron Karpius at 259 Greenleaf 

St. Also, painters Petria Mitchell 

and Jim Giddings have renovated 

the studio and gallery space in 

their 1700s Cape Cod house and 

barn at 447 Stark Road. 

According to its website, the 

Mahalo Art Center “promotes 

wholeness and wellness: building 

awareness, confidence, creativity 

and healthy community, through 

multi-cultural, ancient and modern, 

nature-based expressive and 

centering arts.” 

1234 Putney Road, Brattleboro, VT • 802-251-1000 

at what 

happens when 

teen fantasy 

is replaced 

by the hard 

realities of love, 

responsibility, 

and growing up 

outlet and opportunity for new 

writers in the theatre.” 

As part of the award, the 

Weston Playhouse had provided 

Meinwald and Leary with 

a stage director, music director, 

and five Equity actors for a 

three-day Vermont residency to 

rehearse selections from a new 

musical. 

The musical was subsequently 

selected for workshop 

at the prestigious Yale Institute 

for Music Theatre last June, 

culminating with a public reading 

at New Haven’s Off-Broadway 

Theatre as part of the 2011 

International Festival of Arts 

& Ideas. 

However, only this year at 

Weston Playhouse is Pregnancy 

Pact being transformed from 

workshop incarnations into its 

first full-scale world-premiere 

theatrical performance. 

■ SEE PREGNANCY PACT, PAGE B2 

A change of space 

Annual arts tour features new stops, artists 

During the 2012 tour, the 

center will exhibit the works 

of photographer Gene Parulis. 

One of the newest members of 

Brattleboro-West Arts, Parulis 

said he immediately felt the 

venue, which sits in a tranquil 

sloping meadow removed 

from the traffic of busy Western 

Avenue, was a good fit for his 

work. 

“When I visited Mahalo Art 

Center and met its creator, Luz 

Elena Morey, for the first time, 

I was struck by the pervading 

sense of harmony and light, 

which produced a lovely atmosphere 

of welcome,” said Parulis. 

■ SEE ART TOUR, PAGE B2 

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Veteran folkies ‘singing the good old 

songs’ to benefit Brooks library 


friends of Brooks Memorial 

Library is holding a concert event 

on friday, Sept. 7, at 7:30 p.m., 

in the American Legion Post 5 

Hall on 32 Linden St. The suggested 

donation is $12, and proceeds 

benefit the library. 

former New Christy Minstrel 

singer Jackie Davidson and 

Michigan folksinger Gary Brandt 

will continue the rich tradition of 

folk music with their program, 

which they call “singing the good 

old songs again.” They combine 

classic and original folk songs 

into an energetic show with audience 

interaction, participation, 

and humor. 

n Pregnancy Pact fROM SECTION fRONT 

The premiere 

Meinwald and Leary have 

been working on this project 

since 2009, but this week will be 

the first time they will see their 

work staged and performed complete 

in front of a live audience. 

Weston Playhouse Resident 

Producing Director Steve Stettler 

said that, unlike many new 

shows, Pregnancy Pact was virtually 

ready to go when the authors 

arrived this summer in Weston. 

“The show didn’t need a lot 

of tweaking,” he said. The authors, 

however, are eager to get 

it just right, and are still working 

to smooth out transitions and 

making everything flow together. 

Calarco was brought into the 

project only four or five months 

ago, although he has had many 

years experience working with 

new musicals. 

“I have worked on a lot of new 

shows, mostly in readings,” he 

said. “Workshop readings are 

great, but there is a limit to what 

you can figure out in a rehearsal 

room with actors and a piano. 

You ultimately really need a 

staged production in front of an 

audience to understand how a 

work plays.” 

He said Pregnancy Pact’s script 

“was really strong as we came 

into rehearsals. And I found that 

I loved the work more every day 

I rehearsed the musical. I have 

fallen in love with the characters. 

Some may think teenage 

pregnancy is a dangerous topic, 

but Meinwald and Leary bring us 

so close to understanding these 

characters that it is no longer 

provocative or scary.” 

The authors became interested 

in the topic almost immediately 

after Time magazine ran 

the now-infamous article, Pregnancy 

Boom at Gloucester High, in 

its June 18, 2008 issue. 

“As summer vacation begins, 

17 girls at Gloucester High 

School are expecting babies — 

more than four times the number 

of pregnancies the 1,200-student 

school had last year,” according 

to the Time article. “Nearly half 

the expecting students, none 

older than 16, confessed to making 

a pact to get pregnant and 

raise their babies together.” 

Murman interviewed the authors 

and shared these quotes 

about the how they became interested 

in the story: 

“When we first heard about 

the alleged pact in Gloucester 

we were just as fascinated by the 

story as it seemed like the rest of 

the world was. As more details 

emerged and made it clear that 

an actual pact probably never existed, 

we were still intrigued that 

the public so quickly believed it 

could happen. Since the world 

seemed quick to believe and 

condemn these girls, we began 

writing the show to explore the 

human side of the story and try 

to understand what might cause 

a real pact to happen.” 

However, Pregnancy Pact is 

not a “docu-musical” (if such a 

genre even exists), but a fictional 

re-imagining of the premise of 

the actual event. 

According to Murman, the authors 

said, “the biggest challenge 

in working with any real-life 

event is navigating the line between 

fact and fiction. A writer 

always wants to feel true to the 

source, but it’s also important to 

tell the best story you can. With 

our show, we chose to stay away 

from the true story surrounding 

the scandal. The world and story 

of our show is entirely fictional. 

“Our intent in writing the 

show was not to judge the decisions 

the girls make. Since we 

approached the story as an exploration 

rather than an explanation, 

we chose not to build any 

kind of moral judgment into our 

telling of it.” 

A teaching 

moment 

This does not mean that the 

authors or Weston Playhouse are 

shying away from the implications 

of a very real teenage pregnancy 

epidemic in our country. 

“The WPTC is excited to 

present this new work,” Murman 

said, “but at the same time 

encourages parents, teachers, 

and all theatre-goers to consider 

that the play includes sexually explicit 

language and scenarios, as 

well as profanity. It may shock, 

it may offend, but we hope it also 

inspires honest and frank discussion 

and opens the door to better 

communication on a vital and 

sensitive subject.” 

Weston Playhouse is attempting 

to reach reach the very group 

that is the subject of the play by 

inviting the area’s high school 

classrooms to come to special 

performances of Pregnancy Pact. 

They are helping prepare 

this audience by sending participating 

schools “Pregnancy 

Pact: Teachers Guide,” which 

broaches everything from Time’s 

original article, through statistics 

on teenage pregnancy, interviews 

with the authors, a description of 

the musical as social commentary, 

and a list of discussion questions 

groups can consider after 

they have seen the play. 

But director Calarco thinks it 

would be a mistake to limit the 

appeal of the play to mere social 

commentary. 

“Teenage pregnancy is the 

launching-off pad for many 

things that Pregnancy Pact considers,” 

he said. “The musical is 

about learning life’s very hard 

lessons, about loneliness and 

family, about wanting to love 

something and to be loved, and 

in the end, about how a group of 

teenagers are able to find family 

amongst themselves.” 

Pregnancy Pact contains strong language 

and sexual content.There will 

be talk backs following every performance. 

Tickets range from $50- 

$22. Weston Playhouse Theatre 

(www.westonplayhouse.org) is located 

on 12 Park Street in Weston, 

VT 05161. Box Office: 802-824- 

5288. Customer Service Desk at 

the Playhouse is open Tuesday 

through Sunday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m. 

and through intermission on show 

nights and matinees. Call administrative 

offices for gift certificates or 

AnyTime Tickets. 

n Mills fROM SECTION fRONT 

Moultonborough, N.H. He, in 

turn, sold it in 1999 to Hiram 

and Lois Allen, then of Hartford, 

Vt. 

On Aug. 30, Hiram Allen will 

visit Putney to talk about successful 

efforts to return Ben’s 

Mill to working condition, including 

all of its original equipment 

and its oak penstock and 

turbine. If its dam is approved by 

the state, allowing the stream’s 

flow to turn that repaired turbine, 

Ben’s Mill will run on the 

power of water once more. 

The Allens and others formed 

the Ben’s Mill Trust, which successfully 

brought together Barnet 

residents and friends to restore 

the mill using local volunteer labor. 

Sally fishburn, president of 

the trust’s board, will be on hand 

to answer questions. 

Members of Putney Historical 

Society will also show slides documenting 

the Thwing Mill in 

Putney. That mill was recreated 

at its original spot by the Wilson 

family of Putney in 1987 with the 

help of Greensboro Bend timber 

framer Jan Lewandowski. It sits 

quietly by the side of Sackett’s 

Brook to this day — hidden from 

the view and knowledge of many 

town residents. 

A donation of $3 is requested 

to attend the screening and talk. 

for further information, call 

the Putney Historical Society at 

802-387-8500. 

n Art tour fROM SECTION fRONT 

“The center’s space invites mindfulness 

and contemplation. What 

better place, I thought, to exhibit 

my photographic prints, many of 

which represent journeys, both 

outer and inner.” 

Although he’s a veteran of 

the open studio tour, Karpius 

will be welcoming the public 

into his own studio for the first 

time this year. In the past, he 

has exhibited his work adjacent 

to the workshop of violin maker 

Douglas Cox. 

Visitors to Karpius’s space 

will find a wooded property 

dotted with large-scale sculptures 

and bisected by a winding 

stretch of Ames Hill Brook. A 

sturdy footbridge, which replaces 

one washed away last year by 

Tropical Storm Irene, leads to 

the artist’s cabin. Inside, his living 

space and work space mingle 

Davidson started playing 

music at age 15, working as a 

church organist. She moved to 

southern California and joined 

the trio The Randy Sparks 3. 

They eventually became the 

Grammy-Award-winning The 

New Christy Minstrels, and 

soon became regulars on The 

Andy Williams Show. Davidson 

sang with many well known entertainers 

such as Sammy Davis 

Jr., Tennessee Ernie ford, Kate 

Smith, and Carol Channing. 

With the Minstrels, Davidson 

performed at the White 

House for President Johnson, 

at Carnegie Hall with Alan 

Sherman, and at the Hollywood 

Ben Thresher’s mill, as it looked in the 1970s. 

where he creates his pieces that 

range from 3-inch-square oil 

paintings to murals 40 feet wide 

to copper sculptures and weathervanes 

on a scale that dominate 

the small rooms. 

Mitchell and Giddings recently 

completed renovations to 

an historical cape in the woods 

that will house Mitchell’s painting 

studio. It is adjacent to their 

home and Giddings studio. The 

house is also the site for a gallery 

of paintings by the couple. There 

are plans to offer painting workshops 

in this new space with “the 

opportunity to share meditation 

and poetry in a beautiful, contemplative 

setting.” 

Tour-goers will get a look at 

the couple’s newest paintings in 

oils on canvas and paper, including 

many experimental works 

never before shown. 

Bowl. She also accompanied Al 

Hirt on her banjo at the Greek 

Theatre in Hollywood. 

Brandt is a popular folklorist, 

singer, and songwriter from 

Michigan. A retired educator 

and coach, he has shifted to 

full-time performing. He has 

composed songs and performances 

for such venues as the 

National Historic Oregon Trail 

Interpretive Center, the Rocky 

Mountain Elk foundation, 

and Chrysler Omni Arts. His 

multimedia program Land To 

The West, has been performed 

more than 300 times across the 

country. 

His song, Somewhere In 

Brattleboro-West Arts (BWA) 

is an association of nearly 30 

artists and craftspeople who 

live within the watershed of the 

Whetstone Brook. Participants 

in this year’s tour represent disciplines 

as diverse as violin making, 

glass blowing, metalworking, 

boat building, painting, pottery, 

ceramic sculpture, and woodworking. 

Returning to the tour 

this year after a hiatus are woodworkers 

David and Michelle 

Holzapfel of Applewoods Studio 

in Marlboro and sculptor/collage 

artist Sharon Myers, whose 

creations will be on display at 

American Traders, 257 Western 

Ave. 

In conjunction with the tour, 

the Chelsea Royal Diner in West 

Brattleboro will host a “localvore” 

dinner on Sept. 29. In addition 

to sampling a selection of 

Montana, has been featured in 

western poetry publications. 

His new songs for 2012 include 

Singing The Good Old Songs 

Again, the theme song for the 

show. Other new songs include 

Going To Tennessee and I Sang 

My Songs In California, which he 

wrote with his friend and former 

New Christy Minstrel member 

Art Podell. 

Tickets are available at the 

library’s main circulation desk, 

Vermont Artisans, Everyone’s 

Books, In the Moment, and at 

the door the night of the concert. 

COuRTESY Of BEN’S MILL TRuST INC. 

locally produced foods, the public 

will have a chance to share a 

meal with BWA members. Also 

visitors will have the opportunity 

to enter a drawing at any 

tour stop to win one of two gift 

certificates, one for jewelry from 

silversmith Chris Lann and another 

for a meal at the Chelsea 

Royal Diner. 

Since 2009, the annual tour 

has been organized and promoted 

by the participating artists 

and made possible in part by the 

support of local businesses and 

organizations. 

Brochures with a map to all 

the 2012 tour sites are available 

at any tour stop and at 

various other locations, including 

the Brattleboro Chamber 

of Commerce and American 

Traders, or by visiting www. 

brattleboro-west-arts.com.

The Commons • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 The ARTs B3 

Seeds/Leaves by Lynn Hoeft. Her work will be 

on display in September at the Moore Library in 

Newfane. 

Lynn Hoeft watercolors 

on display in September 

NEWFANE—Lynn Hoeft of 

Brattleboro will exhibit her watercolors 

at the Crowell Gallery 

of the Moore Free Library, 

23 West St., for the month of 

September. 

An artist’s reception and opening 

will take place on Saturday, 

Sept. 1, from 1 to 3 p.m. 

Hoeft works in both transparent 

watercolor and colored 

pencil. Focusing on a narroweddown 

landscape of the natural 

world, she paints the beautiful 

objects that are always around 

us: a cluster of tiny berries, a 

bright blue feather, or a sprig 

of rosemary. In addition, she 

paints and draws collections of 

the things you might find around 

you every day – a green pepper, a 

silver spoon, a scrap of lace, a few 

buttons and an old fishing lure. 

Most often painting from 

a bird’s eye view, she also includes 

bright paper and fabric 

patterns, historic photographs 

and elements as diverse as opera 

glasses, a tuning fork, and 

DUMMERSTON—The 

Vermont Theatre Company will 

present a mystery dinner theater 

production: a Las Vegas wedding 

and murder, Viva Las Vegas. 

The play is to be presented at 

the Evening Star Grange in 

Dummerston Center on Sept. 

21 and 22. 

The action takes place in 

rockin’ Las Vegas where it appears 

love has won out in the battle 

of wills between the spoiled 

Virgen White and her controlling 

and brilliant father, Pearly Gates 

Gamboling Emporium owner 

Blackjack White. E.Z. Ryder, the 

rakish groom and ex-Ghosts of 

Hell biker, has sworn that he is 

ready to give up his wild life for 

wedded bliss. Standing in front 

of the tiny Love Me Tender 

Chapel, accompanied by her 

mother, Dee Vorst, the beautiful 

blushing bride Virgen and 

the leather-clad E.Z. are about 

to say “I do” just as Blackjack 

White storms in and shouts “You 

won’t!” 

In a town famous for glitzy 


Brattleboro Women’s Chorus 

starts on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 

with an Open Sing for Women 

at All Soul’s Church in West 

Brattleboro from 7 to 8:30 p.m.. 

All community women are 

welcome to join in on this evening 

of singing together, which is 

also the opening night of rehearsals 

for the chorus’ 17th year. 

The chorus meets Wednesdays, 

from 7 to 8:45 p.m. after the 

! 

!"#$%$&'%'&##! 

vintage buttons. 

Whether walking around town 

or through the woods, she’s always 

on the lookout for feathers, 

seeds and leaves to add to her 

next painting. 

Whether depicting a single 

hawk feather, the inside of one 

perfect pear, or a collection of 

objects that reflect a family’s 

history, these paintings respect 

all of the senses: the objects and 

possessions we observe daily, 

the food we touch and taste, the 

flowers we smell, and our memories 

of the natural world. 

Educated at Bennington 

College and Pratt Institute, she 

has been a painter for 25 years. 

She relocated to Vermont in 

2008. 

The show is open during 

library hours — Tuesday to 

Friday, 1 to 3 p.m., and Saturday 

9 a.m. to 1 p.m. — and runs 

through Sept. 29. For more information, 

call Librarian Meris 

Morrison at 802-365-7948. 

VTC cooks up another 

mystery dinner theater play 

style, quick weddings, and even 

quicker bucks, this tawdry scene 

is not uncommon. As dancing 

showgirl Ruby Lipps and handsome 

music legend Rock King 

witness, the fire and brimstone 

preacher Reverend Hal Fyre proceeds 

to utter his “Do you Virgen 

White....” Just then a scuffle ensues, 

a shot rings out, and the 

father of the bride cashes in his 

chips. It is up to Sheriff Sam 

Stone to sift through the clues, 

and with the audience’s help, 

to bring the murderer to justice. 

The play is accompanied by 

dinner prepared by David’s 

Catering of Putney. Audience 

members are welcome to dress 

up for the occasion. 

The doors will open at 5:30 

p.m., and the dinner begins at 6 

p.m. Tickets are $30 per person 

(which includes the dinner and 

the evening’s entertainment). 

Reservations and advanced payments 

are required. To make reservations, 

call 802-258-1344 or 

email vtcreservations@gmail.com. 

Women’s Chorus begins 

17th year with open sing 

Open Sing, and welcomes all 

women and girls over 10 who 

enjoy singing. 

Most songs are taught by rote 

and by ear, so music reading expertise 

is not required. There is a 

participation fee charged for chorus, 

with financial aid available. 

For more information, contact 

director Becky Graber at 

802-254-8994, or contact her 

via the chorus website, www. 

brattleborowomenschorus.org. 

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HAIJ!KLLMNOP! 

B4 T HE C OMMONS • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 

B-1 Brattleboro 

morning route 

(elementary) 

7:22 Route begins at 

Mountain Home 

Trailer Park (mailboxes, 

west side of 

park). Turn right 

onto Sunset Lake 

Road. 

7:25 At Gulf Road. 

Proceed to Marlboro 

Road; turn right. 

7:31 At 775 Marlboro Rd. 



7:37 At Hamilton Road. 


town line; turn 

around, then return 

to Marlboro Road. 

7:39 At Cooke Road. Turn 

right onto Westgate 

Drive. 

7:42 At Sherwood Circle 

and Tudor Lane. 

7:43 At First Level Drive. 

Turn right onto 

Western Avenue. 

7:45 At intersection of 

Western Avenue and 

Edward Heights. 

7:47 Route ends with 

pickup at intersection 

of Western 

Avenue and 

Stockwell Drive. 


morning route 

(high school) 

7:55 Route begins at 257 

Sunset Lake Rd. 


Sunset Lake Road 

and Gulf Road. 

Return to Marlboro 

Road. 

7:57 At Regina Vista. Turn 

right onto Marlboro 

Road. 

8:00 At Olsen Drive. 



town line; turn 

around and proceed 

to Westgate 

Apartments. 

8:06 At Sherwood Circle 

and Tudor Lane. 

8:07 At Third Level Drive. 


pickup at First Level 

Drive. 


afternoon route 

(elementary) 

3:00 At Mountain Home 

Trailer Park office. 

3:02 At west side of 

Mountain Home 

Trailer Park. Turn on 

Marlboro Road, turn 

right on Sunset Lake 

Road. 

3:05 At Gulf Road. Turn 

around. Take right 

and proceed up 

Route 9 (Marlboro 

Road). 



3:15 At 1033 Marlboro 

Rd. Turn around and 

return to Route 9 

(Marlboro Road). 


3:20 At Cooke Road. 

3:22 At Edward Heights. 

3:15 Route ends at 




(high school) 

3:45 Route begins with 

dropoff at intersection 

of Sherwood 

Circle and Tudor 

Lane. 

3:46 At Third Level Drive. 

3:47 At First Level Drive. 

Take left onto 

Marlboro Road. Take 

right onto Sunset 

Lake Road. 

3:49 At 257 Sunset Lake 

Rd. Return to Route 

9; take a right. 

3:55 At Olsen Road. 


4:02 Route ends at Cooke 

Road. 


morning route 

(elementary, 

middle, high) 

7:24 Route starts with 

pickup at 123 

Bonnyvale Rd. 

7:25 At Mather Road. Take 

right onto Mather. 

7:26 At house just before 

cemetary. 

7:27 At box 59. Take 

left onto Greenleaf 

Street; take to 

Abbott Road. 

7:30 At Ames Hill Road. 

Turn on Ames Hill 

Road. 

7:32 At the Tyler family 

home. 

7:32 At 109 Ames Hill Rd. 

7:35 At Robb Farm. Turn 

around. 

7:40 At Lilac Ridge Farm. 


Hinesburg Road. 

SCHOOL BUS SCHEDULES — WINDHAM SOUTHEAST 

7:40 Pick up at Melchen 

Road. Turn around. 

7:41 At 1011 Hineburg 

Rd. 

7:42 At Goodenough Rd. 

7:42 At 675 Hinesburg 

Rd. Take right at 

stop sign at Quails 

Hill Road. Return to 


7:50 At Academy School. 

Pick up students 

from route B1. 

At Green Street 

School. 

8:00 At Oak Grove School. 

8:15 Drop off at BUHS. 


afternoon 

(elementary) 



Bonnyvale Road, 

then right onto 

Mather Road. 

3:05 At 59 Mather Rd. 

Turn left onto 

Greenleaf Street. 

3:07 At Abbott Road. 

Proceed on Abbott 

Road. 

3:10 At Ames Hill Road. 

3:11 At second driveway 

on right. 

3:12 At Robb Farm. Drop 

off and turn around. 

3:13 At Lilac Ridge Farm 

and Covey Road. 


Hinesburg Road. 

Turn around and 

drop off at intersection 

of Hinesburg 

and Melchen Roads. 


Rd. Drop off and 

turn around. 

3:16 R oute ends 

with dropoff at 

Goodenough Road. 


afternoon 

(high school) 


dropoff at 123 

Bonnyvalle Rd. 


Bonnyvalle and 

Mather Roads. Turn 

right onto Mather 

Road. 

3:41 At second house on 

right. 

3:41 At Greenleaf Street. 


Greenleaf. 

3:44 At intersections of 

Abbott Street and 

Ames Hill Road. 

At Tyler family home. 

At 109 Ames Hill 

Road. 

At Robb Farm. 

3:51 At Covey Road. Turn 

around and return 

to Hinesburg Road. 

Take right onto 

Hinsburg Road. 

Proceed to Melchen 

Road; turn around 

and drop off. 


Rd. 

At Goodenough 

Road. 

At 472 Hinesburg Rd. 

At yellow house on 

right. Turn right 

onto Greenleaf Road. 

At Quails Road. 


morning route 

(elementary) 


Canal Street School. 

7:30 At Morningside 

Condo. 

7:40 At Pauls Road. 



Academy School. 


morning route 

(high school) 


first entrance of 

Mountain Home Park 

loop. 

8:02 At west side of 

Mountain Home 

Park (mailboxes). 

Proceed on Western 

Avenue. 



8:06 At Christy’s 7-Eleven 

(1020 Western 

Ave.). 

8:08 At church on Western 

Avenue in front of 


8:09 At Brookside 

Apartments. 


pickup at Shell station 

on Western 

Avenue. 



(elementary) 


pick up at Green 

Street School. 

2:43 At Canal Street 

School. 



C&S 

Wholesale 

Grocers 

Nation’s Largest 

Wholesale Distributor 

3:03 A t Westgate 

Apartments/ 

Sherwood Circle. 


School. 

3:15 At Morningside 

Elementary School. 


Maple Street and 

Belmont Ave. 


3:23 Route ends at Pauls 

Road. 



(high school) 

3:30 pickup at 

Brattleboro Union 

High School. 


dropoff at Shell station 

on Western Ave. 


Apartments. 

3:39 At Ziters Deli and 

church in front of 


3:45 At first entrance of 

the Mountain Home 

Trailer Park loop 

(office). 

3:47 At the west side of 

the park. 


Stockwell Drive and 



Christy’s 7-Eleven 

store. 


morning route 

(elementary) 



of Orchard 

Street and Upper 

Dummerston 

Road. Take Upper 

Dummerston Road. 

7:29 At Meadowbrook 

Road. 

7:31 At Box #904. 

7:32 At Hillwinds Road 

(cross over). Take 

right onto Route 30 

south. 

7:35 At 1252 Route 30. 

7:37 At Putnam Drive. 

Take Route 30 to 

Main Street. 

7:50 Drop off at Green 



dropoff at Academy 

School. 


morning 

route (middle/ 

high school) 

8:00 Route begins on 

Western Ave. at intersection 

of Spruce 

Street. Take Cedar 

Street to Linden 

Street (Route 30) to 

Upper Dummerston 

Road. 


Meadowbrook Road 

(cross over). 

8:07 At box #1029. 



left onto Route 30 

north. 

8:09 At Hemlock Hill 

Road. Return to 

Route 30. 

8:11 At green iron bridge. 

8:12 At West Dummerston 

Fire Station. 

8:17 At covered bridge. 

Turn left onto Sugar 

House Road. 

8:12 At Sugar House 

Road. Turn around; 

turn right onto 

Route 30 south. 

8:17 At Stickney Brook 

Road. 

8:19 At Putnam Road. 

Take Route 30 south 

and continue to 

Main Street. Turn 

right onto High 

Street. 


with pickup at 

Morningside 

Commons. 



(elementary) 




Apartments. Turn 

left onto Orchard 

Street. 

3:10 At Western Avenue. 

3:14 At corner of Upper 

Dummerston Rd. 

Turn left onto Upper 



(cross over). Turn 

right onto Route 

30S. 


dropoff at 1252 

Route 30. 


afternoon 


high school) 

3:35 Route begins 

with dropoff 


at Morningside 

Commons. Take 

Route 30 north; 

turn left on Upper 


3:40 Dropoff at Box #667. 


Upper Dummerston/ 

Meadowbrook Roads. 

Cross over. 

3:44 At box #1029. 

3:45 At box #1073. 


(cross over). 

3:47 At Hemlock Road. 

Take left onto Route 

30 N; left onto West 

Street. 

3:54 At Covered Bridge on 

right. 


Road. Turn around 

and drop off. 

Proceed south on 

Route 30. 

3:58 At box #2877. 

4:00 At Stickney Brook 

Road. 

4:03 Drop-off at box 

#1288. (Gray mailbox 

across from 

square sign on 

right.) 


dropoff at box 

#1036. 


morning route 

(elementary 

school) 


pickup at North 

Street. 

7:36 At Town Crier drive. 

7:38 At Landmark Hill 

and intersection of 

Putney Road. 

7:40 At America’s Best 

Inn. Take right onto 

Black Mountain 

Road. 

7:42 At Black Mountain 

trailer park. 

7:44 At top of the hill 

(SIT). 

7:55 Drop off at Green St 

School out front. 


drop-off at Oak 

Grove School. 



(elementary 

school) 


pickup at Academy 

School. Take right 

onto Western Ave. 

3:07 At Brattle Street. 

3:08 At Greenhill Parkway. 

3:10 At Green Street 

School. 

3:20 At North Street. 

3:23 At Town Crier Drive. 

3:26 At Landmark Hill 

Drive. 


Inn. Turn left onto 


Road. 


Trailer Park, first enterance 

only. 

3:37 At top of the hill 

(SIT). 

3:40 At Brattleboro 

Reformer. 


morning route 

(elementary 

school) 



of Belmont Ave. 

and Maple Street. 


Maple Street. 

7:37 At Chestnut West. 


Guilford Street Ext. 

7:39 At Christie Lane. 

7:40 At Hillcrest Terrace. 

Turn around at 

Summit Circle. 

7:43 At Kyle Road. 

Continue down 

hill, turn right onto 

Maple Street, turn 

right onto Fairview 

Street. 

7:47 At Ledgewood 

Heights. Turn left 

onto Canal Street, 

right onto Clark 

Avenue, right onto 

Moreland Avenue. 

7:50 Drop off at Oak Grove 

School. 


dropoff at Green 



morning 


high school) 

8:03 At tourist information 

booth on Town 

Common. Take 

Putney Road north. 


8:05 At Green Mountain 

Apartments. 




Road. 


Trailer Park. 

8:11 At top of hill (SIT). 

8:19 At intersection 

of Guilford Street 

Extension and 

Christie Lane. 

8:20 At Hillcrest Terrace. 


pickup at Kyle Road. 



(elementary 

school) 


pickup at Oak Grove 

School. 


School. 

2:50 At Green Street 

School. 

2:55 Drop off and pick up 

students at Academy 

School. 

3:05 Leave Academy 

School; turn right 

onto Guilford St 

Extension. 

3:09 At Christie Lane. 

Turn around at 

Summit Circle. Drop 

off at Kyle Road; 


Maple Street. 

3:12 At Chestnut West; 


Fairview. 



Ledgewood Heights. 



(elementary 

school) 


Guilford Street 

Extension with 

dropoff at first driveway 

on right. Turn 

around at Summit 

Circle. 

3:38 At Kyle Road. 

At Christie Lane. 

3:42 At Spruce Street. 

3:45 At North Street. 

Proceed to Putney 

Road. 


3:49 At Green Mountain 

Apartments. 

3:51 At American’s Best 



Road. 


Trailer Park. 

3:55 At SIT. 

D-1 

Dummerston 

morning route 

(elementary) 

7:40 Route begins at intersection 

of Green 

Mountain Camp 

Road and Camp 

Arden Road. Take 

Green Mountain 

Camp Road. 

7:41 At Hague Road. 

Follow Green 

Mountain Camp 

Road to East-West 

Road. 

7:49 At Prospect View 

Drive. 

7:52 At Dummerston 

Center. Turn onto 

Middle Road. 

7:53 At Dutton Farm 

Road. 

7:54 At Kipling Road. 

7:55 At Nourse Hollow 

Road. Turn onto 

Nourse Hollow Road 

and take to East- 

West Road. Take 

right. 

8:00 At 71 East-West Rd. 

Turn around. 


Road. 

8:02 At Tucker Reed Road. 


pickup at School 

House Road. 

D-1 

Dummerston 

morning route 

(high school) 

8:06 Route begins at intersections 

of Middle 

and Houghton Road. 


Middle Road. 



Road. 


Center. Take hard 

right onto East West 

Road. 

8:11 At first house on 

East-West Road. 



Road. 

8:14 At house across from 

Vet Clinic. 

8:16 At old Colonel’s 

Cabin. 


pickup at Old 

Regional Library. 

D-1 

Dummerston 


(elementary) 



Dummerston 


Take School House 

Road. 

2:46 At East-West Road. 

Turn left onto East- 

West Road. 



Road. 

2:46 At 71 East-West 

Rd. Turn around 

and take left onto 

Nourse Hollow Road. 

2:50 At Middle Road. Take 

right onto Middle 

Road. 



Road. 


Center; turn left 

onto East-West 

Road. 

2:59 At Prospect View 

Road. Continue 

and take right onto 

Green Mountain 

Camp Road. 

3:02 At Hague Road. 


dropoff at Arden 

Road. 

D-1 

Dummerston 


(high school) 




High School. 


Houghton Road and 

Middle Road. Take 

Middle Road. 



Road. 


Center. Take East- 

West Road. 


East-West Road. 



Road. 


dropoff at 71 Nourse 

Hollow Rd., across 

from vet clinic. 

DP-3 

Dummerston 

morning route 

(elementary) 


Route 5 with pickup 

at Carpenter Road. 

7:26 At Hidden Acres 

Campground. 

7:27 At Colonel’s Cabin. 


Station Road. 

7:34 At Johnson’s Curve 

Road. Turn left; 

turn left again onto 

Houghton Brook 

Road. 

7:36 At Sugar Maple 

Drive. Return to 

Route 5. 


pickup at Waterman 

Road. 

DP-3 

Dummerston 


(elementary) 



Dummerston 


2:50 Carpenter Road. 

2:52 At Hidden Acres 

Campground. 

2:53 At Colonel’s Cabin. 


Station Road. 

2:56 At Waterman Road. 

2:57 At Johnson’s Curve 

Road. Turn left; 

turn left again onto 


Road. 


dropoff at Sugar 

Maple Drive. 

DF Dummerston 

morning route 

(elementary) 


Stickney Brook 

Road with pickup at 

Sunset Lake Road. 

7:22 At Hill Road. 

7:28 At 720 Stickney 

Brook Rd. 


Brook Rd. 

7:30 At Bear Hill Road. 

7:35 At Leonard Road. 


Fire Station. 


Road/Maple Valley. 

7:45 At J.B. Auto. 


7:50 Transfer students to 

D-1. 



Dummerston 


DF Dummerston 


(elementary) 



Is Proud to Sponsor the 

2012-2013 BRATTLEBORO AREA 

BUS SCHEDULE 

If the bus’s red lights 

are flashing, 

Dummerston 


Take Route 5 south. 



Road/Maple Valley. 


Fire Station. 

3:07 At J.B. Auto. Turn 

onto Stickney Brook 

Road. 

3:10 At Leonard Road. 

3:11 At Bear Hill Road. 


Brook Road. 


Brook Road. 

3:19 At Hill Road. 


dropoff at Sunset 

Lake Road. 

P-1 Putney 

morning route 

(elementary) 


first house on right. 

[Editor’s note: Sorry, 

we have no idea 

what road we’re on.] 

7:23 At Lower Cassidy 

Road. 

7:23 At last mailbox on 

right. 

7:28 At Box #258. 

7:29 At Box #251. 

7:30 At Box #33. 


East Putney Falls 

Road and Cemetery 

Road. 



Road and Pierce 

Road. 

7:34 At 229 East Putney 

Falls Rd. 


River Road and East 

Putney Falls Road. 

Turn onto River Road 

south. 

7:38 At Pratt Road. 

7:39 At hump on left 

that goes over the 

railroad. 

7:40 At 568 River Road 

south (farm on left). 

7:41 At Priest Drive. 

7:42 At home on right 

just before hill. 

7:44 At house on left at 

top off hill, past dog 

kennel. 

7:45 At Hi-Lo Biddy Road. 

7:46 At Vinegar Lane. 


pickup at Town Hall. 

P-1 Putney 

morning 

route (high) 

7:55 At first driveway on 

West Hill Road past 

Aiken Road. 

7:56 At Putney Mountain 

Road. Pick up and 

turn around; turn 

left onto Aiken 

Road. 

7:57 At 63 Aiken Rd. 

7:58 At South Windmill 

Hill Road. 


Hickory Ridge and 

Tavern Hill Road. 

8:00 At Black Locust 

Road. Take hard left 

onto Westminster 

Road; to town line, 

then turn around. 

8:05 At first driveway 

on right after town 

line/turn around. 

8:10 At Sand Hill Road. 

8:11 At Signal Pine Road. 

8:12 At Town Hall. 


pickup at Putney 

Food Co-op. 

P-1 Putney 


(elementary) 



Central School. 


right on Old Stage 

Road. 

2:50 At Lower Cassidy 

Road. 

At 78 Old Stage Rd. 

Turn left onto East 

Putney Brook Road. 

2:56 At bridge, turn 

around and drop off. 


right. 

At trailer on right. 

At first house after 

Old Stage Road on 

right. 

At third driveway 

on right. Take left, 

then right onto East 



Cemetery Road and 


Road. 

3:01 At Box #258. 


River Road and East 


Turn right onto River 

Road. 

3:04 At Pratt Road. 

3:04 At hump on left 

that goes over the 

railroad. 

3:05 At house on corner. 

3:06 At Stolohm Farm. 

3:06 At Priest Road. 

3:07 At last driveway just 

before hill. 

3:08 At house on left just 

after hill and dog 

kennel. 

3:09 At Hi-Lo Biddy Road 

(cross over). 


dropoff at Vinegar 

Lane. 

P-1 Putney 


(high school) 




High School. 

3:46 On Johnson’s Curve 

Road, drop off at 

intersection of 


Road (cross over). 

Turn left onto Route 

5 north. 

3:48 At Town Hall (cross 

over). Turn left onto 

Westminster Road. 

3:50 At Signal Pines. 

3:51 At Sand Hill Road. 

3:52 At Putney Central 

School. Turn left 

onto West Hill, to 

Putney Mountain 

Road. 

3:55 At Putney Mountain, 

turn around and 

drop off. Turn onto 

West Hill, left onto 

Aiken Road, right 

onto Tavern Hill. 


Dusty Ridge Road 

and Tavern Hill 

Road. 

4:02 At The Grammar 

School. Turn left 

onto Westminster 

Road to town line; 

turn around. 


dropoff at first driveway 

on right. 

P-2 Putney morning route 

(elementary) 


Pine Banks Road 

with stop at second 

driveway on right. 

7:33 At third driveway on 

the right. 

7:34 At Town Line Road, 

pick up and turn 

around. 

7:34 At Turners Trail Road. 

7:35 At 251 South Pine 

Banks Rd. 

7:36 At day care on right. 


5 north. Turn right 

onto Fort Hill Road. 

7:39 At Kings Drive. 

7:40 At Great Meadow 

Ridge, pick up and 

turn around. 

7:41 At Mountain View 

Road and Taylor 

Road. 

7:41 Occasional pickup 

at horse farm just 

past Santa’s Land on 

right. 

7:43 At second driveway 

past East Putney 

Brook Road. 

7:45 At Town Farm Road. 

7:46 At driveway just 

past Rounds Road 

on right. 

7:47 A t Putney 

Meetinghouse. 


pickup on Signal 

Pines Road on left. 

P-2 Putney 

morning route 

(high school) 


pickup at Town Farm 

Road. 

7:56 At Earls Way. 

7:57 Occasional pickup at 

Old Stage Road. 

7:58 At East Putney Brook 

Road. 

7:59 At Harlow’s Sugar 

House. Pick up and 

turn around. Take to 

Route 5; on to East 

Putney Falls Road; 

take to intersection 

with River Road and 

take right. 

8:06 At East Putney Falls 

Road and River 

Road. 

8:07 At house on sharp 

corner on right. 

8:08 At trailer on right 

just before hill. 


pickup at Hi-Lo 

Biddy Road. 

P-2 Putney 


(elementary) 



Central School. 

Take left onto 

Westminster Road. 

2:47 At Signal Pine Road, 

turn left onto Route 

5 north. 

2:50 A t Putney 

Meetinghouse on 

left. 

2:50 At driveway just before 

Rounds Road 


YOU 

MUST 

STOP 


north. Take left onto 

Pine Banks Road. 


right. At Town Line 

Road, turn around 

and drop off. 

2:55 At Turners Trail Road. 

2:56 At 251 South Pine 

Banks Road. 

2:57 At day care, two 

driveways on right. 


5 north; turn right 

onto Fort Hill Road. 

3:01 At Kings Road. 


Ridge Road, turn 

around and drop 

off. Turn left onto 

Fort Hill Road to 

top. Turn left onto 



Road. 


dropoff at Town 

Farm Road. 

P-2 Putney 


(high school) 




High School. 

3:45 At Town Farm Road. 

3:46 At Earls Way. 

3:48 At East Putney Falls 

Road. 

3:49 At Harlow’s Sugar 

House. 


Road. 

3:51 At Beam Road. Turn 

right onto Fort Hill 

Road. 


right. 

3:53 At Kings Road. 


Ridge. Turn right 

onto River Road 

south. 



Road and River 

Road. 

4:00 At white house on 

corner. 

4:02 At fifth driveway on 

right. 


dropoff at Hi-Lo 

Biddy Road. 

V-1 Vernon 

morning route 

(elementary) 


pickup at second 

house past church 

on Route 142. 

7:16 At house just past 

cemetery on left. 


Pond Road, then 

right onto Huckle 

Hill Road. 

7:20 At Huckle Hill Road 

and Hickory Hollow. 

7:33 At driveway before 

Basin Road. 

7:34 At Hucklehill Road 

and Basin Road. 

7:35 At Hucklehill Road 

and Hemlock Road. 

Turn around on the 

flats on the first hill 

across from Stone 

Bridge Road. 

7:36 At Wheeler Road. At 

stop sign, turn right 

onto Pond Road. 

7:39 At blue house on 

right. Turn right into 

Silver Lane. 

7:41 At 297 Silver Lane; 

return to Pond Road. 

Turn right onto Pond 

Road. 

7:42 At Savage Daycare 

driveway. Proceed to 

Lily Pond Road. Pick 

up and turn around, 

then turn right onto 

Pond Road. 

7:44 At driveway across 

from Silver Lane. 

7:44 At next driveway on 

right. 

7:45 At driveway just past 

Vernon Recreation 

Dept on right. 

7:46 At Old Farm Road 


right into Central 

Park. Turn around 

at Poplar Lane and 

proceed back to Oak 

Court. 

7:50 At Oak Court. Take 

Pond Road, turn 

left into Crestwood 

Estates. 

7:53 At 74 Crestwood 

Estates. 


Estates. Turn left 

on Pond Road; take 

to Route 142. Turn 

right onto Governor 

Hunt Road. 


pickup at first driveway 

on left (cross 

over). 

V-1 Vernon 

morning route 

(high school) 


pickup at green 

It’s 

the 

law!

T HE C O mmONS • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 NEWS B5 

trailer on Hucklehill 

Road. Turn around at 

Basin Road. 

8:05 At Wheeler Road. 

8:07 At Hickory Hollow 



Road. 


Silver Lane and Pond 

Road (turn around). 

Turn left onto Pond 

Road. 

8:10 At Forrett Drive. 


Central Park Road 

and Pond Road. Turn 


north. 

8:14 At 2069 Route 142. 

8:15 At second house before 

the church. 


pickup at Oxcart 



pickup at Broad 

Brook Road. 

V-1 Vernon 


(elementary) 


pickup at Vernon 


2:50 At Governor Hunt 

Road, last driveway 

on right just before 

Route 142 intersection. 


Route 142, right 

onto Pond Road, 

right onto Crestwood 

Estate. 


Estate; proceed 

around cul-de-sac. 


Estate. Take right at 

Pond Road. 

2:53 At Old Farm Road. 

2:53 At Forrett Drive 


right onto Hucklehill 

Road. 

2:56 At driveway before 

green home on 

right. 

2:57 At driveways on right 

just after green mobile 

home on right. 

2:59 At Basin Road and 

Hucklehill Road. 


drop off at Hemlock 

Road. Proceed back 

down Hucklehill 

Road. 

3:00 At stop across from 

Stone Bridge Road. 

3:01 At two-story blue 

house on right. Turn 

right onto Silver 

Lane. 


Allison Lane and 

Silver Lane. 

3:03 At 297 Silver Lane. 


Road. 

3:04 At Savage Day Care. 

Turn around at Lily 

Pond Road, turn left 


3:05 At driveway across 

from Silver Lane. 

3:06 At big field on right, 

next driveway after 

727 Pond Rd. Turn 

left onto Hucklehill 

Road. Take right 

onto Central Park 

Road. Take to Poplar 

Lane; turn around 

and go to Oak Court. 

3:08 At Oak Court. 

Proceed to Pond 

Road. Go right, then 

take left onto Route 

142 north. 

3:10 At 1140 Route 142 

North. 


dropoff at second 

house before church 

on Route 142. 

V-1 Vernon 


(high school) 




High School. To 


3:28 At Broad Brook 

Road. 

3:28 At Ox Cart Road. 

3:29 At second house after 

church. 

3:31 At brown house (after 

Hubbard Road, 

before Tyler Hill 

Road). 

3:33 At 2069 Route 142 


right onto Pond 

Road. 


Central Park Road 

and Pond Road 

(cross over) 

3:37 At Forrett Drive 


right onto Hucklehill 

Road. 

3:40 At Hickory Hollow 


Proceed to Hemlock 

Road on top of 

Hucklehill Road. 


drop off. 

3:42 At 619 Hucklehill 

Rd. Return to Silver 

Lane; route ends 

with dropoff there. 

V-2 Vernon 

morning route 

(elementary) 


pickup at T–Bird 

Lane. 

7:21 At 3034 Fort 

Bridgman Road. Turn 

right onto Newton 

Road. 

7:22 At Fox Hill Road. 

7:24 At Meadow Road. 

7:30 At Breezy Acres 

Drive. 

7:31 At Brookside Drive. 

7:32 At 828 Newton 

Rd. and Rosner’s 

Daycare. Turn left 


7:35 At Scott Road (cross 

over). 

7:36 At Newton Farm. 

7:37 At Dunklee Drive. 

7:38 At Houghton Hill 

Road. Turn right 

onto Route 142 

south to Vernon 

Manor. 

7:40 At Vernon Manor. 


Route 142 north. 

7:42 At Valley View Drive. 

7:43 At Homestead Way. 

7:43 At 3215 Fort 

Bridgman Rd. 

7:43 At Blodgett Road. 


pickup at white 

house just past 

Blodgett Road. 

V-2 Vernon 

morning route 

(high school) 


Newton Road with 

pickup at Fox Hill. 



Drive. 

8:05 At Bookside Drive. 

8:06 At Rosner’s Day Care. 

8:06 At 840 Newton Rd. 


Road. 

8:07 At 942 Pond Rd. 

8:07 At Plain Road. 


Turn left at stop 

sign onto Route 142 

north. 





Governor Hunt Road. 

8:18 At 349 Governor 

Hunt Rd. 


pickup at 628 

Governor Hunt Rd. 

V-2 Vernon 


(elementary) 




2:49 At T-Bird Lane. Turn 

right onto Newton 

Road, left onto Fox 

Hill Road, right onto 

Woodlawn Road. 

2:52 At Meadows Road; 

proceed around 

cul-de-sac. 

2:53 At Southern Heights. 

2:54 At White Tail Drive. 


Newton Road. 


Drive. 

2:58 At Brookside Drive. 


Road. 

3:03 At Scott Road. 


3:06 At Houghton Hill 

Road. Turn right 


south to Vernon 

Manor. 

3:08 At Vernon Manor. 


Route 142. 



3:11 At 3215 Fort 

Bridgeman Rd. 


V-2 Vernon 


(high school) 




High School. 


Hunt Rd. 


Hunt Rd.; turn right 

onto Newton Road. 

3:45 At Fox Hill Road. 


3:47 At Breezy Acres. 

3:48 At Rosner’s Day Care. 


Road. 

3:50 At Plain Road. 



142 north. 



3:57 At Tyler Excavation. 


dropoff at Blodgett 

Road. 

V-3 Vernon 

morning route 

(elementary) 


pickup at 649 

Franklin Rd. 

7:21 Franklin Road and 

Victoria Rd. 

7:22 Franklin Road and 

Laurel Ledges 

7:23 At 383 Franklin 

Rd. Turn right onto 

Tyler Hill, left onto 

Route 5 south, left 

to Lawerly Road. 

7:30 At Lawerly Road. 


Route 5 north; take 

right onto Tyler Hill 

Road. 

7:35 At 76 Tyler Hill Rd. 




7:39 At 1945 Route 142. 

7:40 At Bemis Road. Turn 

right onto Pond 

Road, then right 

onto West Street. 


Sak Road and West 

Road. 

7:43 At Fairman Road 

and West Road. Turn 

around; proceed 

back down West 

Road. 

7:45 At Southward Road. 


Road, right onto 

Route 142 south, 

then left onto 

Stebbins Road. 

7:48 At driveway past 

Falvey’s Way on 

right. 

7:49 At 259 Stebbins Rd. 

At last house on 

right just before 

store. Turn right 


north. 


pickup at house 

across from Fire 

Station. 

V-3 Vernon 

morning route 

(high school) 


pickup at last house 

on right just before 


onto Route 142 N. 

8:10 At house across 

from Fire Station. 



West Street. 



Road. 

8:11 At 403 West Road. 

8:12 At Fairman Road 


around. 

8:14 At Southward Road 


left onto Pond Road. 

8:15 At Washburn Way. 


142. 

8:16 At 2161 Route 142. 

Turn left onto Tyler 

Hill Road. 


8:19 At 596 Tyler Hill 


Franklin Road. 


right (brown house). 

8:22 At Laurel Ledges. 


pickup at 649 

Franklin Rd. 

V-3 Vernon 


(elementary) 






Road. Proceed to 

Fairman Road; turn 


2:52 At Fairman Road. 

2:53 At Southward Road. 

2:54 At 85 West St. across 

from Brown Farm. 


Road, then left onto 


2:56 At house just past 

Falvey Way on right. 

2:57 At yellow house at 

middle of hill. 

2:58 At gray house just 

before store. Turn 

right onto Route 142 

north. 

3:00 At 3105 Route 142. 

3:01 At house across from 

Fire Station. 

3:03 At Bemis Road (cross 

over). Turn left onto 

Tyler Hill Road. 

3:05 At 14 Tyler Hill Road. 


5 south. 

3:10 At Lowerly Road. 


5 north, turn right 

onto Tyler Hill 

Road, then left onto 

Franklin Road. 

3:15 At 333 Franklin Rd. 

3:16 At 383 Franklin Rd. 



dropoff at house at 

bottom of hill. 

V-3 Vernon 


(high school) 




High School. 

3:32 At first two houses 

on Franklin Road, 

middle of hill (cross 

over). 


3:35 At last house at bottom 

of hill. Turn left 

onto Tyler Hill Road. 


3:37 At 576 Tyler Hill 



3:39 At 2161 Route 142. 



West Road. 

3:41 At Southward Drive 

(cross over). 

3:42 At Sak Road. At 

Fairman Road, turn 


3:43 At Fairman Road. 


Road. 

3:45 At Washburn Way. 


Route 142 south, 

then left onto 


3:49 At Falvey Way. 

3:50 At 102 Stebbins 

Road. 

3:51 At yellow house. 

3:52 At house just before 



north. 


dropoff at house 

across from Fire 

Station. 


‘Load the Latchis’ 

to collect for for 

Drop In Center 

BRATTLEBORO — For 

the second straight year, 

WKVT-FM morning man Peter 

“Fish” Case is collecting food 

for the Brattleboro Area Drop 

In Center. 

Flooding from Tropical 

Storm Irene forced the “Load 

the Latchis” event out of the 

Latchis Theatre last year, where 

the goal was to fill all 750 seats 

in the main theater with a bag 

of food. 

With the Latchis high and 

dry this year, Case is once again 

shooting for a theatre full of 

food for the Drop In Center on 

Friday, Aug. 31. 

Items most needed by the center 

include tuna, pasta and sauce, 

peanut butter, soups and crackers, 

rice, canned meals, canned 

fruits and vegetables, canned 

protein items, baby food, juices, 

cereals and other nonperishable 

foods, personal care items, feminine 

hygiene supplies, and diapers 

and baby formula. 

Case and other volunteers will 

be on hand on Flat Street from 

6 a.m. to 6 p.m. to collect bags 

of food for donors. 

Book Sale to benefit 

Grafton Public Library 

GRAFTON — Hundreds 

of books both culled from the 

Grafton Public Library shelves 

and donated by friends of the library 

will be on sale from 9 a.m. 

to 2 p.m. on the library green in 

historic Grafton on Saturday, 

Sept. 1. 

The latest fiction, classics, 

children’s favorites, non-fiction, 

and biographies are will 

be on sale. We also have audiovisual 

materials available. The 

daylong event is extremely important 

for the finances of the 

town library, as well as an opportunity 

for friends and visitors 

to stroll around the village 

and buy baked goods from the 

Grafton Historical Society’s annual 

bake sale. 

Bags and boxes will be 

AROUND THE TOWNS 

available for carrying home your 

bargains. Prices, with a few exceptions, 

are $2 for hardbacks, 

$1 for paperbacks and $1 for 

audio-visual materials. 

Retreat presents 

annual Walk to 

End Alzheimer’s 

The Alzheimer’s Association 

is inviting Brattleboro-area 

residents to participate in the 

Alzheimer’s Association Walk 

to End Alzheimer’s. 

Brattleboro Retreat will be 

the site of the walk on Saturday, 

Sept. 8, at 9:30 a.m. 

Walk to End Alzheimer’s is 

more than a walk. It is an experience 

for hundreds of participants 

in Brattleboro who will 

learn about Alzheimer’s disease 

and how to get involved with 

this critical cause, from advocacy 

opportunities, the latest in 

Alzheimer’s research and clinical 

trial enrollment to support programs 

and services. Each walker 

will also join in a meaningful ceremony 

to honor those affected by 

Alzheimer’s disease. 

Alzheimer’s disease is now 

the nation’s sixth-leading cause 

of death. As baby boomers age, 

the number of individuals living 

with Alzheimer’s disease will 

rapidly escalate, increasing well 

beyond today’s estimated 5.4 

million Americans living with 

Alzheimer’s. In addition to the 

optional one- or two-mile walk, 

participants will enjoy a special 

tribute to those who have experienced 

or are experiencing 

Alzheimer’s. 

Westminster West 

Community Fair 

to be held Sept. 8 

WESTMINSTER WEST — 

The 23rd annual Westminster 

West Community Fair will be 

held Saturday, Sept. 8, with a 

theme of “Celebrating A Peak 

Experience,” which honors the 

founders of the Windmill Hill 

Pinnacle Association. 

As always, the small-town 

country fair will feature a road 

race, informal parade, live music, 

Day of history, food at 

Brick Meeting House 

ATHENS—On Sunday, 

September 16, 2012, the Athens 

Historic Preservation Society 

(AHPS) will host an afternoon 

of history and food. 

Starting at 2 p.m at the Athens 

Brick Meeting House, learn 

more about black history in the 

state of Vermont and locally 

through the story of the Turner 

Family as told through the voice 

of Jessie Daisy Turner. 

Eric Gilbertson of the 

Vermont Preservation Trust will 

be sharing insights on the early 

history of African-Americans in 

Vermont, and Naima K. Wade, 

performance artist and educator, 

will bring to life parts of the 

Daisy Turner story. 

Daisy Turner was the daughter 

of Alexander Turner, a 

former slave who settled and developed 

a farmstead in Grafton. 

Daisy became known nationally 

as an oral historian, sharing the 

stories she heard from her father 

about his life as a slave and his 

journey to Grafton, where he created 

a successful hill farm and 

raised a large family. 

Following this presentation, 

we invite both history enthusiasts 

and the general public to join us 

for an old-fashioned pig roast on 

the Meeting House lawn, beginning 

at 4 p.m., with typical outdoor 

games and activities. 

This event is sponsored by 

the AHPS as part of an effort 

to raise awareness and community 

support for efforts to 

preserve and restore this gem 

of a historic building. The 

Meetinghouse is historically 

significant to this region, particularly 

for the 13 towns which 

formed a group for religious purposes 

including Athens, Grafton, 

Rockingham, Townshend, 

Got an opinion? 

(Of course you do! You’re 

from Windham County!) 

Got something on your 

mind? Send contributions 

to our Letters from Readers 

section (500 words or fewer 

strongly recommended) to 

voices@commonsnews.org; 

the deadline is Friday to be 

considered for next week’s 

paper. 

When space is an issue, 

we give priority to words 

that have not yet appeared 

elsewhere. 

Londonderry, Weston, Chester, 

Acton, Springfield, Landgrove, 

Windham, Putney and Mt. 

Holly. 

These towns comprised the 

“Old Athens Circuit,” through 

which circuit preachers traveled 

to perform religious services. 

Quarterly meetings of members 

from all of these towns often 

lasted two days. For years 

after regular religious services 

ceased at the Meetinghouse, the 

Meetinghouse was maintained 

by funds raised at summer events 

for speeches by various politicians 

and other notables. 

The Brick Meeting House will 

be open for tours after the history 

presentation. For more information 

about the day’s event 

or the AHPS, call Beth Ann at 

802-365-7740. 

Make a friend 

for life 

and, this year, a “Bubble Magic” 

show for kids at noon by Rob 

Mermin of Circus Smirkus. 

Live music at 11 a.m. will be 

provided by Grafton Cornet 

band, and the parade will celebrate 

the Pinnacle Association, 

which was founded in 1991 

and now has 21 miles of trails 

across five towns: Westminster, 

Rockingham, Brookline, Athens, 

and Grafton. 

Other activities include the 

“chop-a-matic” game with corn 

cobs, a “fun run” geared for children 

up to age 12, face painting, 

live music and a popular barbecue 

lunch. 

“It’s a great place to catch 

up with neighbors and enjoy 

a home-grown fair in a classic 

Vermont village,” said Betsy 

Williams, one of the fair organizers. 

“Fair proceeds also support 

a community resource that 

many people rely on.” 

A silent auction and golden elephant 

sale also offer the chance 

to buy a wide array of bargains. 

This year, Westminster West 

resident Jack Keil, creator of 

McGruff the Crime Dog, will 

auction off the chance to have 

that famous voice on voice mail 

of the winning bidder. 

The fair runs from 8:30 a.m. 

to 3 p.m. in Westminster West. 

Attendance is free, and there 

also is a barbecue chicken lunch 

and other food, including hot 

dogs, ice cream and corn on the 

cob, for sale. The fair also features 

a talent show open to all, 

art show, vegetable contest, and 

other activities. 

Proceeds from the fair help 

support the community use of 

the Congregational Church of 

Westminster West building and 

community suppers held there. 

Fast Friends hosts 

annual Walk 

for the Greys 

WALPOLE, N.H. — Fast 

Friends Greyhound Rescue is 

hosting their sixth annual Walk 

for the Greys and second annual 

Chili Cook-off at Alyson’s 

Orchard on Route 12 on Sunday, 

Sept. 9, from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 

The Walk is open to all 

breeds of dogs and is an easy 

walk through the orchard. 

Registration is $15 and all participants 

are encouraged to collect 

sponsorships. You can even 

create a fundraising page at www. 

firstgiving.com/15204. 

The Chili Cook-off is $15 to 

enter as a contestant and just 

$5 to come taste all of the entries. 

All registration forms and 

event flyers can be found at www. 

HelpingGreyhounds.org. 

Fast Friends will have some 

of their adoptable greyhounds 

available to meet. Other activities 

include face painting, apple 

picking, hay rides, a K-9 demonstration, 

and lots of great chili to 

taste. All proceeds go toward the 

care and feeding of the 45 greyhounds 

waiting for new homes. 

Call 603-355-1556 with questions 

or for more information. 

Start or join a team today at 

alz.org/walk. 

Session covers 

resources available for 

seniors, caregivers 

GRAFTON — Many people 

are unaware of all the help available 

for them and their aging 

loved ones. Whether it’s planning 

for future care needs, or addressing 

current challenges such as senior 

depression, loneliness, and 

caregiver stress, at this program 

you’ll discover you’re not alone. 

Staff from the nonprofit 

Senior Solutions (formerly the 

Council on Aging) will present 

information and answer your 

questions about resources and 

services for local seniors and 

their families and unpaid caregivers 

on Friday, Sept. 7, at 3 p.m. 

at the Grafton Public Library. 

There will also be information 

about volunteer opportunities. 

If you help someone with daily 

necessities, transportation and 

such, then you probably fall in 

the category of family caregiver. 

If you’re the primary caregiver 

for a qualified individual, you 

may be eligible for respite care to 

allow you to attend this program. 

To find out, contact the Senior 

HelpLine as soon as possible at 

1-800-642-5119 or info@seniorsolutionsVT.org 

Diana Lane’s Yoga 

begins 

Monday, September 3, 

Labor Day 

Join The Yoga Studio for one month for $40 

With choices of eight classes as many as you like 

Monday through Thursday 

at 7:30am & 5:30pm 

Week One: Learn the Basic Format 

Week Two: Enhance the Basic Format 

Week Three: Add Strength Training 

Week Four: Enjoy the Flow 

First 7 to enroll get a gift! 

Call: Diana at 802-365-9425 

Location: On the Common, Townshend, Vermont 

Available Pets for Adoption 

Hi there, my name is Naomi. I 

came all the way from New York 

with my two precious kittens. 

Now that my motherhood days 

are over, I’m on the prowl for a 

new home. I’m a very loving and 

affectionate young girl. I’d be 

super happy in almost any home, 

if I’m given the proper introduction 

to new animals and plenty of 

time to adjust. Come in soon to fall in love! 

Hi there. My name is Anomaly. 

My care-givers here at the humane 

society say I was a “stray.” 

They think I must have had 

a home at one point though, 

because I’m very friendly and 

affectionate with people. When 

you visit me you may notice I’m 

missing some patches of hair. 

This is due to a food and flea 

allergy I arrived with. Because of this I will need an ongoing 

special diet (Hills Science Diet Z/D) and consistent 

flea prevention. I don’t seem to mind the other cats here, 

so I’d probably be okay living with another cat so long as 

we have a properly paced (i.e. slow) introduction. 

Windham County 

humane SoCiety 

916 West River Road, Brattleboro, VT 

802-254-2232 View all at: wchs4pets.org 

This space is graciously sponsored by: 

onestopcountrypet.com 

Dalilah here everybody! I am a beautiful 

Newfoundland mix who just loves going 

for walks in the woods, lounging in my 

kiddie pool on hot summer afernoons, 

and playing with doggie friends. I am an 

older girl, and still have a lot of love to 

give! I enjoy people of all ages, and if I 

were to live with children, I’d like them 

to be easygoing like me. Cats and dogs 

alike are friends of mine, so I’d be happy 

to meet anybody you have in mind. If I 

sound like your kind of girl, come on in 

and see me! Love, Dalilah 

My name is Penny. I am a very sweet and quiet 

little girl who loves to be around calm people 

and pets like me. Being curled up in someone’s 

loving arms is where I want to be, but I do like 

a good walk and playing with dogs my own 

size. I think cats are interesting and a little bit 

intimidating,so maybe a home with outside cats 

would be better for me. Children around 10 

years and up I prefer, just because I feel comfortable 

when I’m in a calm environment. If you like 

my photos and what I have to say, please come 

in and see me. I’m always ready for a good cuddle! Love, Penny 

648 Putney Road 


802.257.3700 

149 Emerald St 

Keene, NH 

603.352.9200

B6 t he c ommons • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 

Beyond 

d escription 

n 

2 BRATTLEBORO . Dawn 

Dance: Join hundreds of enthusi- 

astic dancers from far and wide in dancing 

from dusk to dawn to some of the finest musicians 

and callers around. The Dawn Dance 

starts with English Country Dancing from 2:30 

to 5:30 Sunday afternoon, followed by contra 

dancing with three excellent bands and callers 

from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. Monday morning. 

Local food items will be for sale at the dance 

by Tristan Toleno. n 2:30 p.m.-7 a.m. n 

n Dawn Dance/Gibson Aiken Center, 207 Main 

Street. Information: http://dawndance.org; 

802-257-1571. 

f undraising and 

awareness events 

n 

1 GRAFTON . Book Sale: 

Hundreds of books both culled from 

the library shelves and donated by friends 

of the library will be on sale on the library 

green in historic Grafton. The latest fiction, 

classics, children's favorites, non-fiction, 

and biographies are will be on sale, plus CDs 

and DVDs. n 9 a.m.-2 p.m. n $2 for hardbacks, 

$1 for paperbacks, and $1 for audiovisual. 

n Grafton Public Library, 35 Grafton 

i nstruction 

n 

THURSDAY 

30 

4 BRATTLEBORO . Learn 

Cha Cha: Five-week Cha Cha dance 

series begins at "Shall We Dance?" Please 

carry your dance shoes. n Beginners at 6:30 

p.m; intermediate class at 7:30 p.m. n Cost 

for the series is $40 for either class; $60 for 

both. Drop-in cost: $10; $15 both classes. n 

Stone Church, 210 Main Street. Information: 

Ray at 802 579-9990; ray@shallwedance.biz. 

arts & community calendar 

FRIDAY 

31 

Cmn. Information: 802-843-2404; librarian@ 

graftonpubliclibrary.org. 

n 

Need New flooring? 

Damian Flooring 

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VOTED 

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SATURDAY 

1 

v isual arts 

and shows 

2 BRATTLEBORO . Pancake 

Breakfast: Brattleboro Firefighter's 

Benefit Association presents its annual All 

You Can Eat Pancake Breakfast. n 7-11 a.m. 

n $6, Children $4. n West Brattleboro Fire 

Department, 16 South Street. Information: 

802-254-4831. 

340 Franklin Road, Vernon, VT • Off Rt. 5, South from Brattleboro 

802-254-4945 • damianflooring@yahoo.com 

Hours: Mon-Fri, 9am - 4pm, Saturday, 9am - 1pm 

68 th Guilford Fair 

Sunday 9/2 and Labor Day, Monday 9/3, 2012 

Ticket Prices: Adults $7 Children 6-12 $2 

Children 5 and under FREE, Senior Citizens $5 

Sunday 

9:00-1:00 Classic Car display 

Come vote for your favorite in the 

People’s Choice Award 

10:00 Working Farm Horse Demo 

1:00 Fire Department Muster 

1:00-4:00 Children’s Ride Bracelets 

both days 

New England Center 

for Circus Arts Shows 

Sheep Shearing Demos 

Musicians 

Children’s Bike Raffl e 

D&L Amusement Rides 

m usic 

n 

31 PUTNEY . The Bob 

Stabach 4tet: With Eugene Uman, 

piano; George Kaye, bass; Jon Fisher, drums; 

Bob Stabach, sax, performing a spirited mix 

of jazz â " standards, fusion, Latin, and originals. 

n 7:30 p.m. n No cover. n Putney 

Inn, 57 Putney Landing Road. Information: 

802-387-5517. 

n 31 SAXTONS RIVER n 1 

. Live: 

Green Zone: Green Zone features 

Ben Mitchell on guitar, Mark Crowther on sax, 

bass, and keys, Eric Rhomberg on bass, djembe 

and keys, and Johnny Yuma on drums. n 8 

p.m. n No cover. n Pleasant Valley Brewing, 

16 Main St. Information: 802-869-4602; www. 

myspace.com/blacksheepffr. 

NEWFANE . Lynn Hoeft's 

watercolors : The work of Lynn 

Hoeft, who works in both transparent watercolor 

and colored pencil, will be on display 

during the month of September. n 

An artist's reception and opening on Sept. 

1, 1-3 p.m. Through Saturday, September 

29. n Free. n Moore Free Library, 23 

West Street. Information: 802-365-7948; 

moorefreelibrary.org. 


c eleB rations, festivals, 

community meals 

n 

30 B R A T T L E B O R O . 

Community Appreciation 

Day: Come enjoy free lunch cooked by the 

CEO, CFO, and the board of directors, participate 

in a raffle, and celebrate Brattleboro 

Savings and Loan's 100th anniversary. n 

11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. n Free. n Brattleboro 

Savings & Loan, 221 Main Street. 

n 

SUNDAY 

2 

1 GUILFORD . Guilford Fair: 

The Guilford Fair is an old-time agricultural 

fair that features horse pulling, a 

LLC. 

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MONDAY 

3 

n 

1 BELLOWS FALLS . Quartet 

Riffs on Orchestral Roots: 

Lovers of chamber music and Celtic fiddling 

are in for a treat when The Fretless performs. 

Combining Celtic, folk and chamber music into 

a unique sound it likes to call "rad trad," the 

young quartet aims to create its own unique 

path in the music world. n 7:30 p.m. n 

$17, $13 for seniors and children under 12, in 

advance; and $20,$15 at the door. n Stone 

Church Arts, 14 Church St. Information: 802- 

463-3100; www.immanuelepiscopal.org/ 

StoneChurchArts.html. 

n 

TUESDAY 

4 

2 GUILFORD . Orchestra 

Lawn Concert & Picnic: 

Grounds open at noon for picnickers; lunch 

cattle show, live musical entertainment, a 

horse show, carnival rides, crafts, children's 

events and agricultural demonstrations. n 

Varies. Through Monday, September 3. n n 

Guilford Fair, Guilford Fairgrounds. 

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available with a variety of hearty vegetarian 

salads with plenty of protein options; 

Vermont cheese, bread, and fruit, as well as 

a beverage, all for $10. Ken Olsson leads the 

Guilford Festival Orchestra in a program of 

works by Handel, Haydn, and Mozart, as well 

as by 150th anniversary honorees Delius and 

Debussy, and a new work for soprano and 

strings by Zeke Hecker. Soloist for two delightful 

Mozart arias and the Hecker is Kristen 

Carmichael-Bowers. The afternoon ends with 

the weekend's traditional finale, a sing-in of 

Randall Thompson's "Alleluia." n 2 p.m. 

n Free. n Organ Barn at Tree Frog Farm, 

158 Kopkind Rd. 

teacher treasures 

A Teacher Resource Store & More! 

School Year 

Hours 

Wed-Fri 2-5 

Sat 10-5 

Monday 

8:30 Horse Show 

10:00 Horse Drawing 

New Horse Pull Arena on the 

fairgrounds this year! 

Come help us break it in! 

10:00 Cattle Show 

Featuring: 

Teacher Created Resources 

Creative Teaching Press 

House Mouse Designs 

Home-Schooler & Christian Materials 

Scrap Booking 

Used Books & Lending Library 

Rte. 30, Newfane - Just North of the Village 

802-365-4811 

MEMBERS 1ST CREDIT UNION 

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Insured to 

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10 Browne CT PO Box 8245 

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Tel. (802) 257-5131 

Fax (802) 257-5837 

p erforming 

arts 

www.guilfordfairvt.com 

n 

31 B R A T T L E B O R O . 

Brattleboro DoubleTake 

Fringe Festival: Six to eight 30-minute 

performance pieces taking place at a 

variety of venues in the downtown area. n 

6-10 p.m. Through Saturday, September 1. 

n Free. n Brattleboro DoubleTake Fringe 

Festival, Downtown. Information: 802 258- 

2210; fredly@myfairpoint.net. 

n 

1 WEST CHESTERFIELD . 

Staged Reading: "Time of 

my Life": It's well known that family celebrations 

often bring out the worst in people. 

Welcome to Alan Ayckbourn's "Time of 

my Life," a play that peels back the layers 

of painful family dynamics with devastating 

wit and insightful compassion. n 7:30 p.m. 

n $6. n Actors Theatre Playhouse, Corner 

Brook & Main Streets. Information: 877 666- 

1855; www.actors-theatre.info. 

n 

1 GUILFORD . Organ 

Concert: Solo and chamber works 

by Handel will be performed with an assist by 

strings and winds from the Guilford Chamber 

Players. See the Friends of Music at Guilford 

website for further details and directions to 

the Barn. n 7:30 p.m. n Free. n Organ 

Barn at Tree Frog Farm, 158 Kopkind Rd.

THE COMMONS • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 VOICES C1 

VOICES 

Living with the bigot within 

I used to believe that I was relatively immune to the affliction that causes 

humans to separate ourselves into tidy categories of ‘them’ and ‘us’ 

ANNIE HAWKINS 

SECTION BC 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012 • page C1 

OPINION • COMMENTARY • LETTERS 

Join the discussion: voices@commonsnews.org 

EDITORIAL 

Irene’s lessons, Irene’s legacy 

A 

year after the flooding, the final box score for 

Tropical Storm Irene in Vermont is still being 

tallied. 

We know 3,500 homes were damaged or 

destroyed. 

We know that 20,000 acres of farmland were 

flooded. 

We know 500 miles of state roadways and dozens of 

bridges were torn apart. 

We know seven lives were lost due to the storm. 

The final cost of damage to homes, farms, businesses, 

and public property could eventually be as high 

as $1 billion. Nobody knows for sure. 

And the hardest hit towns are still struggling. While 

more than a dozen businesses in Wilmington have rebuilt 

and reopened, 40 percent of the town’s businesses 

remain closed. 

There are still hundreds of open disaster relief cases 

around the state, nearly 300 of them in southeastern 

Vermont alone. The stoic Vermont habit of saying, “I’m 

alright. That other fellow over there needs help more 

than me,” kept many from applying for aid. 

The emotional toll of the storm can never be fully tallied. 

The feeling of safety and security that was ripped 

away from so many people will take a long time to 

return. 

Then there is the specter hovering over everything 

— the possibility that another Irene will happen again 

soon, due to climate change. With data pointing to 

Vermont seeing more extreme weather events in the 

coming years, can Vermont towns whose settlement 

patterns have traditionally been near rivers survive more 

wild weather? 

One year later, we understand if people are sick of 

talking about Irene. But before the memories fade, 

we want to remember that, at the worst of times for 

Vermont, we saw Vermont at its best. 

The teamwork between the workers of the 

Grafton 

T 

HIS SUMMER , a 

resident of Chester’s 

main street staked a 

homemade sign in 

his front yard, a few feet from 

the road. In bold, black letters, 

artfully arranged on a white 

background, it asks, “What 

part of 30 MPH do you not 

get?” 

It must be hellish to live on 

there on Friday afternoons 

when tourists rip through 

town and again on Sunday 

afternoons when they rush 

to get home to Connecticut, 

Massachusetts, or New York. 

There is so much divisiveness 

in our world, so much 

either-or thinking that hurts 

ears and clogs minds. In our 

country, you’re either conservative 

or liberal, rich or poor, 

black or white, gay or straight, 

atheist or believer, native or 

immigrant, Vermonter or 

flatlander. 

Buddhist teachers say that 

we do better when we think 

of one another as alike rather 

than different. I’m not a 

Buddhist, but I’ve tried to live 

by sensible guidance wherever 

I find it, and I used to believe 

that I was relatively immune 

to the affliction that causes 

humans to separate ourselves 

into tidy categories of “them” 

and “us.” 

S INCE I MOVED to Vermont, 

I’ve been divested of self-righteousness. 

I’ve discovered the 

Proof generated August 28, 2012 4:11 PM 

bigot within me. 

Other people go to therapy 

to reunite with their “inner 

child” or hand over big bucks 

to workshop gurus who connect 

them with their “hidden 

genius.” I get gobsmacked by 

a demon. 

I’d only lived here for a 

few months when I began to 

look askance at drivers in vehicles 

with out-of-state license 

plates. I quickly learned to hit 

my turn signal and steer toward 

the shoulder when I saw 

them in my rear view mirror, 

whizzing toward my bumper. 

It was easier to move out of 

the way than get angry. 

One Sunday afternoon as 

I was leaving Chester at a sedate 

30 m.p.h., a shiny maroon 

SUV with Connecticut 

plates appeared out of nowhere, 

zoomed passed me on 

the double yellow line, and 

flew on by. 

His reckless driving proved 

that he was a person of disreputable 

character just like all 

Connecticut residents. T hey 

should be deported, I thought 

as the SUV rounded a curve 

and disappeared. I was as entrenched 

in my irrational 

opinion as the 21 percent of 

Americans who believe that 

President Obama is a Muslim. 

When I glanced in the rearview 

mirror again I saw the 

flashing lights of a state police 

cruiser. I pulled over, and the 

trooper rocked on. 

A half mile up the road, he 

was parked behind the SUV. 

Lights were still flashing. He 

stepped out of the cruiser to 

apprehend the miscreant. 

I drove by, raised my hand 

through the sunroof and gave 

a merry wave. 

“ Hasta l uego, baby!” 

Justice was served, and I 

was oh-so-pleased. 

It was the first time I’d ever 

experienced schadenfreude, 

taking pleasure in the misfortune 

of others. For too many 

people, misfortune comes unbidden. 

There is no pleasure 

in witnessing that, but this guy 

had invited his own misfortune. 

That’s how I excused my 

uncharitable thoughts. 

When I turned onto my 

own peaceful dirt road, I was 

still so pumped with schadenfreude 

that I thought about 

parking my car, getting out 

and lounging on the hood, so 

that when the scofflaw drove 

by with his expensive ticket 

stuffed in the glove compartment, 

I could wave again and 

gloat. 

“W E ARE PROTECTED by 

prejudice. We don’t want to 


■ SEE IRENE, PAGE C3 RANDOLPH T. HOLHUT/THE COMMONS 

destroy prejudice. Prejudice is 

our house, our mother,” film 

director Frederico Fellini said. 

Now I understand how it 

starts. A stranger infringes 

on “your” turf. He doesn’t 

act like you or look like you. 

Maybe he doesn’t speak the 

same language. 

So you make up a story 

about him, and embellish it 

with your fear. The mindless 

speeder from out of state becomes 

an “alien” disguised in 

pressed khakis and a Ralph 

Lauren polo shirt and he’s 

driving a stolen car. He was 

born in Kenya or Mexico, and 

he’s up to no good. 

I tried to dodge my bigot 

by staying home from noon 

on Fridays until Monday 

mornings. 

But there’s no escape from 

the people who scare us. 

■ SEE BIGOT, PAGE C3

C2 VOICES ThE C O mmO n S • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 

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Overlooking the West River 

VIEWPOIn T 

A balancing act 

A member of two state 

health-reform boards 

discusses health-care issues 

Wilmington 

I 

AM HONORED to be 

appointed to two advisory 

positions in relation 

to Vermont’s 

evolving health-care system, 

whose workings I hope to 

share with my neighbors. 

The Green Mountain 

Care Board Advisory 

Committee (GMCBAC) is 

comprised of 41 Vermont 

residents. We serve as a public 

sounding board for the 

five Green Mountain Care 

Board Members who are 

responsible for planning 

Vermont’s roadmap to a 

health-care system that improves 

health and moderates 

costs. 

The charge of the 

Medicaid and Exchange 

Advisory Board (MEAB) 

is to advise and inform 

Vermont’s Department of 

Health Access (DVHA) on 

policy development and program 

administration for the 

state’s Medicaid-funded 

programs and the Vermont 

Health Benefit Exchange 

that is being developed. 

This board is comprised 

of 30 Vermont residents, 

evenly divided between beneficiaries 

of Medicaid or 

Medicaid-funded programs, 

individuals, self-employed 

individuals, and representatives 

of small businesses, 

large employers, insurance 

carriers, brokers, and agents, 

advocates for consumer organizations, 

health-care 

professionals, and representatives 

from a broad range of 

health-care professionals. 

As the only person to sit 

on both advisory boards, my 

goal is to facilitate communication 

between the two 

groups as well. 

VERMONT SPENDS approximately 

$5.3 billion 

a year on health care, and 

that care does not reach 

all Vermonters equally. 

Both GMCB and DVHA 

are charged with helping 

Vermont do a better 

job: GMCB by creating a 

path to health care for all 

Vermonters, and DVHA by 

creating the Health Care 

Exchange as a step on that 

path. 

Our current “fee for service” 

system rewards volume 

over value, and the system is 

often problematic, with overdiagnosing, 

over-prescribing 

and over-treatment. 

Without knowing the costs 

of various tests and procedures 

ordered in the name of 

preventing malpractice lawsuits, 

providers do not have 

the opportunity to weigh options 

and find the path that 

leads to the best health outcomes. 

With this system, 

there is no intrinsic need to 

coordinate care. 

GMCB is investigating 

and evaluating alternative 

systems, including those of 

other states, other countries, 

and Vermont’s own IBM. 

The focus of 2012 is to review 

both hospital and insurance 

rates, and establish 

pilot projects, testing different 

methods to pay for and 

improve the quality of health 

care in Vermont. These 

methods include: 

• Bundling, the process of 

JULIE LInEBERGER 

intends to write periodic 

updates regarding Vermont’s 

health-care evolution through 

her involvement with the 

Green Mountain Care Board 

Advisory Committee and 

the Medicaid and Exchange 

Advisory Board. Contact her 

at Julie@LineSync.com. 

having one fee for all costs 

associated with a procedure. 

Rather than paying the surgeon, 

anesthesiologist, hospital, 

physical therapist, and 

those responsible for all followup 

care individually for 

their respective parts in a 

procedure (say, a hip replacement), 

there would 

be one fee — period. This 

method of payment would 

incentivize the group of practitioners 

to collectively do 

their best for the patient. 

• Population-based payment 

gives a budget to a hospital, 

for example, for the number 

of people it serves with expectations 

for a limited level 

of services that must be met. 

The hospital can then manage 

its funds accordingly. 

GMBC is poised to submit 

a State Innovation 

Model grant application next 

month for federal funds to 

implement and test some of 

these methodologies. 

The hospital budget review 

process typically evaluates 

how much money was 

spent providing health care 

the previous year and projects 

those costs into the next 

year’s planning. The GMCB 

goal is to ask, instead: How 

can better health care be 

provided next year? This 

year, a 3.75-percent target 

was set to signal the need to 

moderate cost. 

GMCB’s new Hospital 

Budget Review publication 

is available for download 

(gmcboard.vermont.gov/ 

hospitalbudgets).. GMCB is 

seeking public comment until 

Aug. 31. 

Please check it out, 

add your comments, concerns, 

or ask your questions. 

Alternatively, email GMCB 

Administrative Assistant 

Sam Lacy at Sam.Lacy@State. 

VT.us. 

GMCB IS ALSO working to 

establish Essential Health 

Benefits (EHB), per the federal 

Affordable Care Act, 

that will be universally available 

to all Vermonters once 

the Exchange is in place. 

DVHA is making recommendations 

regarding this 

program to include hospitalization, 

maternity and newborn 

care, mental health, 

prescription drugs. 

The full focus of these 

health-care-reform initiatives 

is to assist Vermont in developing 

a culture of care by 

moderating cost and improving 

health. 

It is a balancing act between 

making quality 

health care available to each 

Vermonter and paying providers 

fairly. It is also a 

process of changing our collective 

vision to focus on 

positive health outcomes 

rather than procedures performed 

or drugs prescribed. 

First, Eileen Parks 

[“Requiem for a Dollar 

Store,” Aug. 22] calls an elderly 

woman who was momentarily 

unpleasant in a grocery 

store a “wrinkled mass of pure 

uck.” Then, the employees of a 

small store are derided for being 

too helpful, and described 

as “pitifully stinky bums.” 

I have no idea if Ms. Parks 

is, or is not, “one of the coolest 

school librarians ever,” as 

she’s described in her bio, but I 

am pretty sure I wouldn’t want 

someone with that kind of attitude 

toward their fellow human 

beings having much to do with 

my children or grandchildren. 

Or myself, for that matter. 

I realize that the piece was 

an attempt at humor, but it is 

entirely possible to be amusing 

without being deprecating, 

condescending and downright 

Judging by the chatter of 

newly minted bridge aesthetes 

[“We need more time to 

consider Interstate 91 bridge 

designs,” Letters, Aug. 22], 

apparently the existing steel 

arch bridges on which Route 

91 crosses the West River are 

beautiful, artistic works of civil 

engineering, while the proposed 

concrete spans are irredeemably 

ugly. 

Really? 

Let’s think about this. The 

existing bridges are rusty, 

shaky, and ill-maintained. 

They are not positive features 

of the landscape. They are not 

unique, not artistic, not graceful, 

not something you look 

forward to seeing (the way you 

might if your daily commute 

were across the Golden Gate 

Bridge, let’s say, or locally, 

With recordbreaking 

drought and heat waves 

this summer, the relationship 

between nuclear power and 

water has become crystal clear. 

Nuclear power plants use 

massive amount of water for 

cooling. Nuclear reactors in 

the U.S., including Vermont 

Yankee, were forced to reduce 

power or shut down this July 

because the river water was too 

hot going into the reactors to 

cool them sufficiently. 

And if the water is too hot 

going in, it’s going to be hot 

coming out. 

Fifty to 65 percent of energy 

generated by nuclear reactors 

is waste heat. If it is not converted 

into electricity, something 

has to be done with the 

wasted energy. 

Every day, Vermont Yankee 

dumps more than 500 million 

gallons of heated water 

back into the river. The thermal 

plume stretches 55 miles 

downstream, from Vernon to 

Holyoke. “Thermal pollution” 

describes this waste heat. 

Sometimes, the water at discharge 

is as high as 105 degrees. 

In nature, when the 

water changes by as little as 1 

LETTERS FROm READERS 

Attempt at humor: deprecating, 

condescending, and downright cruel 

cruel. It is not that I don’t have 

a sense of humor — I spent 

about 20 years actually getting 

paid to be funny. 

I am assuming that the 

“Route 9 Discount Store” that 

she refers to is the Discount 

Food Warehouse on Marlboro 

Road in West Brattleboro that 

closed a few weeks ago, after 

about a year in operation (it 

wasn’t a “dollar store,” by the 

way). 

Being only about a mile from 

our home, my husband and I 

shopped there at least once a 

week, and found the employees 

unfailingly pleasant, courteous, 

helpful, and well-groomed. I 

have no idea why Ms. Parks 

would consider them pitiful, 

stinky, nor bums, unless it was 

just for a cheap laugh at someone 

else’s expense. 

I wonder at these ordinary, 

across the Dummerston covered 

bridge). 

If you had taken a survey before 

the replacement project 

got going, you would not have 

found much appreciation for 

the I-91 bridges. 

In fact, you’d find that the 

average person driving Route 

30 doesn’t notice them at all 

— the same way, most of the 

time, most people don’t notice 

the very ugly utility poles and 

wires that stand along nearly 

every street and road, together 

with trees horribly misshapen 

by the merciless annual hacking 

required to keep offending 

branches away from wires. 

We hear no complaints 

about that, we read no letters 

to the editor about it, because 

we’re essentially blind to it —± 

just as we were mostly blind to 

or 2 degrees, it shocks aquatic 

life. Yes, we are boiling our fish. 

According to the Connecticut 

River Watershed Council, 

“American shad have declined 

by 99 percent since the 1990s 

in the Vernon Pool, the location 

of Entergy’s discharge.” 

There is no reason for 

Entergy to continue to pollute 

the river. A solution already 

exists. A closed-loop system, 

using cooling towers, enables 

reactors to avoid thermal pollution. 

Yankee already uses its 

cooling towers when the river 

is too low or the temperature 

is too high, but Entergy says it 

is too expensive to use cooling 

towers all the time. 

Vermont Yankee was given 

a permit to bypass its cooling 

towers by Vermont’s Agency 

of Natural Resources (ANR). 

That permit expired in 2006, 

and its renewal is in limbo at 

ANR. 

We cannot sit silently while 

Entergy puts profits over the 

life of our river. On Saturday, 

Sept. 8, the SAGE Alliance will 

hold a land and water demonstration, 

“Our River Runs 

Through It.” 

hard-working people’s feelings 

should they happen to read the 

article and see themselves labelled 

as “PSDs,” like some 

kind of disease or rodent. 

We also enjoyed the sense of 

adventure and discovery that 

Ms. Parks describes, with the 

store’s offerings of unusual and 

sometimes mysterious products 

from other parts of the 

country and around the world. 

I disagree with her assessment 

that the store was “dismal” or 

“creepy” or that what they offered 

was largely “dreck.” 

Most of their stock consisted 

of brand-names, often 

high-end “boutique” labels and 

natural and organic products, 

along with the exotics, at rockbottom 

prices because a can 

might be dented, or because 

the item was at, or slightly 

past, its expiration date, it was 

Hardly the first incident of its kind 

RE: “Why we’re leaving 

Bellows Falls,” Viewpoint, 

Aug. 1: 

I’m deeply sorry to hear this 

story. 

I know that the entire 

WNESU district has worked 

on anti-bullying measures, off 

and on (thanks to prodding 

by parents and former board 

members like Jan Mitchell- 

Love), but this piece provides 

more evidence that what we 

those rusty bridges, before they 

became an issue. 

Some people say that we 

don’t notice the bridges because 

we can kind of look 

through them and see the verdant 

hills beyond. 

I don’t think that’s the 

case. The reason we don’t 

notice them is that they are 

not designed to be noticed 

— in contrast to, for example, 

the unusual, eye-catching 

Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill 

Memorial Bridge in Boston. 

Having an eye-catching, 

unusual design for our local 

bridges would not be a 

good idea. The views, in that 

part of the West River corridor, 

would then become views 

of the bridge, not views of the 

hills, of the river, of the Retreat 

Meadows. With some kind of 

We invite the public to join 

us on the Fort Hill Rail Trail 

in Hinsdale, N.H. or in canoes, 

kayaks, and other watercraft on 

the river. 

David Deen, steward of the 

Connecticut River Watershed 

Council; Christian Parenti, 

contributing editor of The 

Nation, and Deb Katz, director 

of the Citizens Awareness 

Network, will speak. 

We’ll launch between 

11 a.m. and noon from the 

Prospect Street Boat Launch, 

off of Route 119 in Hinsdale, 

and hold the rally at 1 p.m. 

The event details are at http:// 

sagealliance.net/actions/ 

river-9-8-12 (sagealliance.net/ 

actions/river-9-8-12). 

The Connecticut River is a 

precious resource to homes, 

businesses, recreation, and 

farms for hundreds of miles 

around Vermont Yankee. The 

fact that we already live with 

530 of tons of highly radioactive 

spent fuel sitting on the 

banks of the river is an outrageous 

risk. Heating the river 

and killing its fish is an avoidable 

outrage. 

Leslie Sullivan Sachs 

Brattleboro 

unsold holiday merchandise, 

or for no reason that we could 

discern. 

We found it a terrific place to 

pick up staples, like good-quality 

pasta, olive oil, and pasta 

sauce, as well as treats like a jar 

of Italian balsamic strawberries, 

which I have seen priced 

at the Co-op for $19, for $2.99. 

Or a big gift box of delicious 

European cookies, retailing for 

$50, marked down to $10. 

We miss the place and wish 

the best for the nice people 

who worked there. 

I am very glad that Ms. 

Parks is back to shopping alone 

at Hannaford. For the sake of 

the mean old ladies, and bums, 

I hope they avoid her, too. 

Heidi Mario 

Brattleboro 

Interstate bridges: rusty, shaky, ill-maintained 

VY heats river, kills fish 

RE: “Here Comes The 

Sun” [Letters, Aug. 15]: 

I agree with John 

Wilmerding’s sentiment that 

we need to move toward renewable 

energy, and for everyone 

else out there who also 

agrees, I would like to offer an 

avenue to do so. 

A 150-kilowatt solar collective 

is being organized by 

Putney-based SunFarm and 

have done to date has not been 

as effective as it needs to be. 

One of the reasons our town 

of Grafton sends so few children 

to Bellows Falls Middle 

School is because stories like 

this one make parents worry 

about what their children’s experiences 

would be like in a 

school miles from their home. 

It’s hard to tell them not to 

worry when episodes like this 

come to the surface. It is hardly 

built by Brattleboro-based 

Integrated Solar. The collective 

offers individuals and businesses 

the opportunity to lease 

shares of a photovoltaic field 

for a 20-year period. 

Each kilowatt-hour produced 

by the shares is credited 

directly to a shareholder’s 

utility bill. Over the life of the 

project, the total savings will be 

greater than the initial outlay. 

the first incident of its kind in 

recent years. 

When bullying behavior gets 

embedded into the neighborhood-and-schoolyard 

culture, 

it takes a serious and sustained 

effort by parents, students, 

teachers, program managers, 

and the broader community to 

drive it back into the shadows. 

I hope these parents and others 

who have experienced bullying 

and threatening behavior 

Another approach to solar energy 

Anyone can participate for 

a small investment of a few 

hundred dollars. The solar 

collective allows those who previously 

could not invest in solar 

due to location, or lack of 

capital, to do so. It also allows 

renters to participate because 

the lease is tied to a utility bill 

rather than a location, and is 

fully transferable. 

Because the field is large, the 

make a point of speaking up, 

whether in the press or at local 

community meetings, because 

it is the only way the issue will 

get the priority attention it 

deserves. 

Jack Bryar 

Grafton 

The writer represents Grafton as 

a member of the Bellows Falls 

Union High School School 

Board. 

“aesthetic” design, we would 

no longer be able to mentally 

block the bridge. 

The proposed designs of the 

new bridges will permit better, 

less obstructed views of 

the landscape than the view 

through the lattice of the current 

bridges. 

A year or two after these 

bridges are built, nobody will 

take note of them. Similarly, 

we’ve become blind to the 

black traffic light posts and 

arms that were such an issue in 

downtown Brattleboro a year 

or two ago. 

What we actually need are 

plain, utilitarian, functional 

bridges. If that means concrete, 

so be it. If that’s ugly, so be it. 

Martin Langeveld 

Vernon 

Jamaica 

librarian 

bids adieu 

Jamaica Memorial 

Library recently concluded 

its successful summer 

reading program. 

Participants enjoyed 

many fun and educational 

events at the library. We 

thank everyone who made 

the programs possible. 

I also thank all of 

the current and former 

Jamaica Memorial Library 

Trustees and the entire 

Jamaica community for 

the opportunity to have 

been your librarian. The 

past eight years have been 

a joy and a privilege to 

come to work. I am extremely 

fortunate to have 

had so much support from 

trustees and patrons. 

While I look forward 

to new adventures in my 

new reference librarian 

position, I am sad to be 

leaving such a wonderful 

community. Thank 

you all. 

Jessie Cassella 

Jamaica 

price per watt is less than that 

of a home system. 

For more information visit 

www.SunFarmVT.com, email 

Sales@SunFarmVT.com, or call 

802-536-4471. 

Nick Ziter 

Putney 

The writer is president of 

SunFarm Community Solar.

The Commons • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 VoICes C3 

VIe WPo I n T 

Nature’s fury 

hits home for 

state legislator 

The scars — both physical 

and emotional — are 

constant reminders of what 

happened that morning 

Jamaica 

IT IS HArD to believe, but 

a year has passed since 

Tropical Storm Irene ravaged 

our community. 

Aug. 28, 2011 is a day that 

will forever be etched in our 

memory. 

We all remember the great 

tragedies of our lifetime. We 

remember where we were and 

what we were doing on the 

morning of Sept. 11, 2001. 

Those who are old enough can 

recall, in vivid detail, the day 

when John F. Kennedy was 

assassinated. 

But unlike many events that 

we witness from a distance 

— on television, through the 

Internet, or in the newspaper 

— Tropical Storm Irene was 

one that touched many of us 

personally. 

We all felt the rain; most 

were inconvenienced by road 

closures; many lost their 

homes, their businesses, and 

their personal possessions; a 

few lost their loved ones. 

A year later, Irene is more 

than a memory. The scars — 

both physical and emotional 

— are constant reminders of 

what happened that Sunday 

morning. 

And for those who were 

most directly impacted, the anniversary 

is merely a milestone 

in what has become a long, and 

sometimes uncertain, journey 

towards recovery. 

AS I TrAVEL down route 11, 

through Londonderry, I am reminded 

of a front porch that 

was carried away by the floodwaters 

and left standing in the 

middle of the road. The porch 

belonged to an elderly couple 

whose home had flooded to the 

windowsills. 

It was a heartbreaking sight, 

but within days, a local army 

of volunteers had gutted the 

home and cleared the debris. 

Leveraging a combination of 

funding from FEMA and the 

Stratton Foundation, the owners 

were back in their rebuilt, 

refurnished home by the end of 

the year. 

On the other hand, two 

nearby homes — both damaged 

beyond repair — sit 

empty today, and they remind 

us of the work that remains. 

Fortunately, both owners are 

in new housing, but they are 

still awaiting word from FEMA 

on approval for a program that 

will allow the town to purchase 

and remove their old homes. 

I recently spoke with a smallbusiness 

owner who suffered 

substantial uninsured losses as 

a result of the flood. Shortly 

after the storm, the state of 

Vermont was able to offer a 

low-cost loan that helped put 

her back in business. 

With the help of the loan, 

she was able to position her 

business for a particularly successful 

rebound this year. A 

year later, she is still paying off 

the loan, but hopes to have it 

Whether we live in an exclusive 

gated community or a culturally 

diverse neighborhood 

in rural Vermont, they walk 

among us. 

I can hide from the tourists 

in Chester, but I can’t hide 

from the second-home owners 

on our road. 

They aren’t terribly dangerous 

and they don’t come often, 

but when they do, they disturb 

our peace. During the day, our 

ears are assaulted by volleys of 

gunshots and the constant roar 

of dirt bikes. 

On summer nights, we’re 

kept awake by the hiss and 

staccato cracks of fireworks, 

as illegal here as they are in 

Connecticut. We don’t call the 

police, because that’s not our 

way. We toss in our beds, reach 

for our earplugs, and grumble 

to each other in the morning. 

No matter how loud the uproar 

is, I must keep peace in 

my mind. I can’t afford to give 

the bigot too much room in 

my house. She only adds to 

the din. 

When the part-time neighbor 

ReP. oLIVeR oLsen, 

R-Jamaica, represents Jamaica, 

Londonderry, Stratton, Weston, 

and Winhall in the Vermont 

House of Representatives. He is 

retiring from the House at the 

conclusion of his term. 

closed out by the end of this 

year. 

OF ALL THE TOWNS in the 

five-town district that I represent, 

none was harder hit than 

my hometown of Jamaica. We 

lost roads, bridges, and several 

homes to Irene. 

My next-door neighbor, 

Beverly Landman, has a unique 

perspective. Her living-room 

window looks out at the bridge 

along route 30 that collapsed 

during the storm. In the days, 

weeks, and months following 

Irene, she watched as remnants 

of the old bridge were removed 

and replaced with a temporary 

structure. 

The destruction and rebuilding 

process is not unfamiliar 

to Beverly. At 94 years of age, 

she still remembers the 1927 

flood, which took out the railroad 

that her father worked on 

but spared the homes on Water 

Street, where she grew up. 

She was here for the 1938 

hurricane, and her late husband 

was intimately involved in 

reconstruction efforts after the 

floods of the 1970s. History, 

it seems, has a habit of repeating 

itself. 

But this time it was different. 

Homes that had withstood nature’s 

fury throughout the 20th 

century were literally swept 

away by Irene, including four 

houses on Water Street. 

Nobody in Jamaica was 

killed or injured, but the people 

whose homes were lost were 

left with a void that only they 

can truly understand. There is 

literally nothing to go back to. 

Like the homeowners in 

Londonderry, and in other 

parts of the state, these families 

are awaiting approval from 

FEMA for a program that will 

allow the town to buy them out 

of their properties. 

AS I WALK into the Jamaica 

village and cross the temporary 

bridge that spans the Ball 

Mountain Brook, I am reminded 

of that day, yet it still 

amazes me how a gentle trickle 

of water could develop into 

such a destructive force. 

While we have much to be 

thankful for and can take pride 

in the many good things accomplished 

over the past year, 

it is all too easy to forget that 

this is not an easy time for 

those who were most directly 

impacted. 

We will always remember 

Irene, but we must ensure that 

we do not forget our friends 

and neighbors who are still 

working their way out of the 

storm. 

Vermont Agency of 

Transportation, augmented 

with highway 

crews from other states, 

the National Guard, and 

local contractors was 

amazing. They all performed 

the impossible, 

and restored full access to 

all the major roads damaged 

by the storm within 

three weeks. 

The utility crews 

from Central Vermont 

Public Service and Green 

Mountain Power quickly 

restored electric service 

under impossible conditions. 

Their prior planning 

and preparation 

shaved days off the rebuilding 

effort. 

Volunteers offered 

their services all across 

the state almost as soon 

as the flood waters 

n Bigot FrOM SECTION FrONT 

three doors down throws his 

annual party, it’s a challenge to 

silence the bigot. We all dread 

the party the way 14th-century 

Europeans dreaded the Black 

Plague. 

The guests from away arrive 

on a Friday afternoon, park 

their vehicles along the side 

of the road, unload tents and 

cases of beer, and promptly set 

about bending their elbows for 

the duration. 

During the day, they engage 

in target practice or “play” musical 

instruments through amplifiers. 

The “music” consists 

solely of C, F, and G chords 

and resumes late at night, after 

the fireworks. The sound 

ricochets across the wetlands, 

blasting through the trees and 

open windows. 

LAST SuMMEr, the party 

was held the weekend after 

Tropical Storm Irene. Like 

Vermonters everywhere, we 

were shocked, grief-stricken, 

stressed, and exhausted. road 

crews were working overtime. 

So were the people who were 


e DITo RIAL 

n Irene FrOM SECTION FrONT 

feeding the crews and anyone 

else who needed a meal. 

On the far end of our road, 

weekend visitors to Camp 

Destiny brought a truckload 

of food for people in need and 

worked all Saturday cleaning 

up homes on the Grafton- 

Townshend road. Later on, 

second-homers in many communities 

opened their doors to 

families displaced by the storm. 

In our immediate neighborhood, 

it was party-hearty. 

The fireworks woke me up 

around 9:30 p.m. I was too 

tired to think twisty thoughts. 

I climbed out of bed, got 

dressed, threw a leg over my 

ATV and drove to the party. I 

looked at the guitars and amplifiers 

arrayed on the deck 

and shuddered. Many guests 

appeared to be knee-walking 

drunk. It was a while before I 

located the host in the “madding 

crowd.” 

He greeted me with a smile. 

“Hi, good to see you. What 

can I get you? Beer? Wine? 

Whiskey?” 

“Nothing, thanks. What I’d 

really like, please, is for you 

to wrap up this party. There’s 

been a disaster here. Everyone 

is exhausted and needs to 

sleep.” 

He assured me that there’d 

be no “music” after 11. 

I thanked him and drove 

home, closed my windows, inserted 

earplugs, and slipped 

into the arms of Morpheus. 

I slept in deep silence, free 

from discordance and the bigot’s 

mad blather. 

receded. The reticence 

shown when it came to 

accepting help didn’t apply 

to offering help. The 

speed of the recovery astounded 

outside observers, 

but for Vermonters, 

it was just doing what 

was what necessary and 

right for their friends and 

neighbors. 

We saw the generous, 

resourceful, resilient, 

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never say die spirit of this 

brave little state of ours in 

days following the flood. 

There is still more to do 

before our state is truly 

whole again, but one year 

after Irene, we can say 

truthfully that Vermont 

has come a long way, and 

that we did it together. 

Editorials represent the collective voice of The Commons and are written by the editors or by members of the Vermont 

Independent Media Board of Directors. We present our point of view not to have the last word, but the first: we heartily 

encourage letters from readers, and we love spirited dialogue even if — especially if — you disagree with us. 

Send your letters to voices@commonsnews.org, or leave a comment at www.commonsnews.org. 

Medicare is not perfect, but it’s 

a good model for single-payer 

Not everyone goes into space or gets 

cancer. Everyone uses health care. 

Williamsville 

WHEN My grandmother 

was 

born, in 1900, 

her life expectancy 

was 48 years. unlike 

her twin brother, she survived 

childhood, and at the age of 

9, left the Austrian-Hungarian 

Empire for the united States. 

She discontinued school after 

eighth grade and went to 

work as a milliner. In time, 

she became quite skilled; for a 

while, she worked for an exclusive 

Fifth Avenue hat maker. 

But after she married my 

grandfather, she helped him 

run a delicatessen. When the 

enterprise failed, my grandfather 

returned to driving as a 

teamster, and my grandmother 

kept house in a 500-squarefoot 

apartment, where she 

raised two children and sewed 

piecework for extra income. 

Despite my grandparents’ 

very modest income and lifestyle, 

both their children — my 

mother and my uncle — were 

able to earn college degrees at a 

publicly funded college. 

And when my grandmother 

turned 65, the first Medicare 

bill was signed into law. 

Harry Truman was famously 

the first person to sign 

up for it. Even though Lyndon 

B. Johnson was the president 

who signed the bill, it was 

Harry Truman who started 

the process 20 years earlier, in 

1945, by sending a message to 

Congress seeking legislation 

that would establish a national 

health insurance plan. 

The idea of universal health 

coverage was met with an outcry 

against socialized medicine, 

so the plan was modified to offer 

health benefits only to recipients 

of Social Security. 

In 1965, when my grandmother 

started collecting Social 

Security, her life expectancy 

was estimated at 73.8 years. 

She was in the first cohort to 

receive Medicare benefits, 

beginning in 1966. Starting 

about 1970, she had a series of 

strokes that robbed her first of 

her sewing hand, then the ability 

to walk, and finally, the ability 

to care for herself. 

My grandfather cared for 

my grandmother until he died. 

He was about 76 years old at 

the time of his death — outliving 

by a few years the statistical 

D e B o RAh 

L ee LUs KIn 

life expectancy for a white man 

born in the last decade of the 

19th century. He was hospitalized 

for the last three weeks of 

his life. 

A year and a half later, my 

grandmother died, aged 73 

years and 8 months. 

As designed, Medicare paid 

for my grandparents’ health 

care, which they would not 

otherwise have been able to 

afford. 

According the National 

Academy of Social Science, 

“the Medicare program was 

modeled on the private insurance 

system in place in the 

1960s,” insurance that was 

aimed at covering hospitalization 

for catastrophic illness, not 

outpatient medical treatment, 

which is more typical of current 

medical practice. But in 

1965, no insurance company 

would sell a policy to someone 

over the age of 65. 

My PArENTS are both 87 

and have been Medicare beneficiaries 

for over 20 years. 

According to the Social 

Security Administration’s Life 

Expectancy Calculator (www. 

ssa.gov/planners/lifeexpectancy. 

htm), I can expect to live another 

28.6 years. But unless 

some big changes are made to 

Medicare, I’m not sure I’ll have 

the same health insurance coverage 

that Medicare was designed 

to provide. 

Big changes are exactly what 

Medicare has been lacking. My 

family’s story illustrates just 

two areas: adjusting for longer 

life expectancy and adjusting 

for changes in medical care. 

Generally, Americans are living 

longer. According to the 

Social Security Administration, 

a man who turned 65 in 1940 

was expected to live another 

12.7 years on average, to 77.7; 

a woman who turned 65 that 

year could expect to live to 

nearly 80. 

But men who turned 65 in 

1990 could expect to live past 

80, and women of the same 

age, to almost 85. 

In 1970, when Medicare was 

five years old, there were 20.9 

million Americans aged 65 or 

older. In 2000, that number 

had grown to 34.9 million senior 

citizens. 

Not only has the over-65 

population grown older and 

larger since 1965, but medical 

practice has also changed. 

Most notably, there have been 

tremendous changes in screening 

and treatment of chronic 

diseases. 

In the mid-20th century, 

health insurance covered hospitalization, 

because that’s 

where someone with heart disease 

would go after a heart attack. 

Now, heart disease is 

more commonly discovered 

during a wellness screening and 

treated with therapeutic medication 

coupled with changes in 

lifestyle. 

Medicare has slowly added 

coverage for medical office visits 

and for prescription drugs, 

but not adequately. Medicare 

routinely underpays the healthcare 

providers and institutions 

that deliver care to its beneficiaries, 

and it continues to pay 

per procedure rather than for 

care. Now, there are proposals 

to privatize it completely, 

shifting the entire burden of 

finding coverage to the seniors 

who qualify. 

THESE ArE JuST a few facets 

of a highly complex issue, but 

ones that those of us who vote 

must understand as the political 

discourse heats up. 

Taxes support many things, 

from moon shots to cancer 

research, but not everyone 

goes into space or gets cancer. 

Every one uses health care. 

Currently, only Americans over 

65, the disabled, and the impoverished 

have national health 

insurance; those of us who 

work and pay for it don’t. 

Medicare is not perfect, but 

it’s a good model for singlepayer 

health insurance. 

It needs some fixes: it needs 

to account for more Americans 

living longer; it needs to emphasize 

health and wellness, 

not just pay for procedures; 

and it needs to cover all 

Americans, as it was initially 

intended. 

Before the politicians of the 

last century lost their will. 

Deborah Lee Luskin is the author 

of the novel Into the Wilderness, 

a love story set in Vermont in 

1964. 

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C4 THE COMMONS • Wednesday, August 29, 2012 

SPORTS & RECREATION 

Colonels, 

Terriers prepare 

for opening night 

of football season 

The Brattleboro and 

Bellows Falls football 

teams had their 

final dress rehearsals 

before their opening games 

this Friday night. The results of 

the team’s scrimmages couldn’t 

have been more different. 

On Friday night, the 

Colonels went to Keene, 

N.H., to play the Blackbirds. 

Brattleboro’s starters had no 

luck at all either moving the 

ball on offense or stopping 

Keene on defense in the first 

half. In the second half, the 

Colonels fared a little better 

against Keene’s second team. 

The Colonels were 5-4 last 

year and just missed out on a 

playoff spot. They will be leaning 

heavily on quarterback 

Tyler Higley, who threw for 

1,700 yards last year in his first 

season as a starter. Coach Mike 

Hatt, now in his third season 

at the helm, is tweaking the 

offense to take advantage of 

Higley’s arm. 

The Terriers played their 

first game under the lights at 

Hadley Field on Saturday night 

against the Newport (N.H.) 

Tigers, and shut them out on 

defense while scoring two rushing 

touchdowns. 

Bellows Falls has a very 

young team, and preseason 

injuries have already forced 

coach Bob Lockerby to 

make some changes on the 

fly. His opening night quarterback 

will be sophomore 

Ethan Illingworth, and he’ll 

be relying upon senior running 

backs Zach Rawling and 

Ethan Amidon for the Terriers’ 

ground game. 

While the scrimmage was 

a success, the biggest success 

story of the night was the 

Hadley Field lights. The field 

was well-lighted from end to 

end and the stands had more 

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Sports Roundup 

fans than you might expect for 

a preseason scrimmage. 

“It’s a whole different atmosphere,” 

said former longtime 

BF football coach Bis Bisbee. 

Both the Colonels and the 

Terriers open their season on 

the road. The Colonels will 

be at Essex, while the Terriers 

travel to Fair Haven. Both 

games start at 7 p.m. 

Heads up! 

With the start of the fall 

high school sports season this 

week comes a new emphasis on 

concussions. 

A new Vermont law, Act 58, 

calls on coaches not to permit 

athletes to train or compete 

with a school athletic team if 

they have suffered a concussion 

or other head injury unless they 

have received medical clearance 

to play. 

Coaches are now required 

to receive regular training on 

how to recognize symptoms of 

a concussion or head injuries, 

and remove athletes from play 

immediately if a concussion is 

suspected. 

According to the Centers 

for Disease Control and 

Prevention, nearly 4 million 

sports- and recreation-related 

concussions occur in the 

United States each year. It is 

the most commonly reported 

injury for children and adolescents 

who play sports. 

With all the attention being 

focused on the effects of 

traumatic brain injuries from 

the battlefields of Afghanistan 

to the playing fields of professional 

sports, it is definitely 

time to pay attention to this 

issue at the middle and high 

school level, particularly in 

contact sports such as football 

and soccer. 

The CDC has a must-read 

fact sheet for parents and student-athletes 

regarding concussion 

treatment and prevention 

at http://www.cdc.gov/concussion/HeadsUp/youth.html. 

Time for Walk, 

Run & Roll 

The 17th annual “Walk, Run 

& Roll” fundraiser to benefit 

the Brattleboro Walk-In Clinic 

will be held on Saturday, Sept. 

15. The event includes a 5K 



Bellows Falls running back Zach Rawling (44) stiff arms a Newport defender out of his path during a 

scrimmage Saturday night at Hadley Field. 

run, a 5K walk, a kid’s fun run, 

and 34-mile cycling event. 

The first 50 adult bikers and 

first 50 adult walkers/runners 

will receive a free race t-shirt. 

Top-finishers will be eligible 

for a variety of prizes from area 

restaurants, shops and retail 

outlets. Additional prizes will 

be awarded in raffles. Prizes 

will be awarded to the top finishers 

in several categories, 

as well as randomly raffled. 

All kids participating in the 

fun run will receive a medal. 

Refreshments will be provided. 

Registration takes place behind 

the Dunham Building in 

the parking lot of Brattleboro 

Memorial Hospital. Bikers will 

register at 7 a.m., with a 7:30 

a.m. start time. 

Run, walk, and fun run registration 

begins at 7:45 a.m. 

The fun run event starts at 8:30 

a.m., while the 5K walk starts 

at 8:45 a.m., and the 5K run 

begins at 9 a.m. 

The walk and run events will 

be professionally timed by 3C 

Race productions.“Walk, Run 

and Roll” is sanctioned by the 

New England Association of 

USA Track & Field (USATF). 

There is a non-refundable entry 

fee of $20 for adults (free 

for youths under 12.) Preregister 

for this event by Sept. 

13 at www.3craceproductions. 

com. More information and 

entry forms are available at 

www.BrattleboroWalkInClinic. 

com. 

All proceeds go to support 

the Walk-In Clinic, a nonprofit 

organization providing 

free medical and dental care to 

those without health insurance. 

Buy Direct from the Farmer 

Sweet Corn • Green Beans 

Potatoes • Lettuce 

Zucchini & Summer Squash 

Eggplant • Herbs • Garlic 

Peppers • Cucumbers 

Melons • Apples & Sweet Cider 

Fresh-Cut Flowers & Glads 

Quantity Prices for 

Canning & Freezing 

Cider Donuts, Breads, 

Cookies & Pies- Fresh Baked from Scratch 

with our very own berries & apples! 

Fall 

Raspberries 

are in! 

Since 1982 


Brattleboro Rotary Club is 

sponsoring Bridget McMahon 

of Keene, N.H., for a Group 

Study Exchange program to the 

Dominican Republic from Sept. 

21 to Oct. 20. 

McMahon will be traveling 

as part of a five-member 

team including Mia Brown of 

Thetford, Jake Kingsbury and 

Kelley O’Hara, both of Keene, 

and Rotarian team leader Bob 

Couch of Bow, N.H. 

McMahon, a customer service 

representative at Hannaford 

in Keene, is a former Spanish 

teacher who has studied at the 

School for International Training 

in Brattleboro and Bay Path 

College in Longmeadow, Mass. 

Offered by Rotary 

International’s Rotary 

Foundation, the Group Study 

Exchange (GSE) program is 

a unique cultural and vocational 

exchange opportunity for 

PUTNEY—The Vermont 

Green Building Network 

(VGBN) has recognized The 

Putney School’s net-zero energy, 

LEED Platinum Field House as 

the 2012 Vermont’s Greenest 

Building. 

Special Orders Welcome! 

Apples & Sweet Cider! 

Watermelons & Cantelopes! 

www.duttonberryfarm.com 

facebook.com/duttonberryfarm 

Open Daily 9 a M–7 p M 

Route 30, 

newfane 

802-365-4168 

Route 9, 

West Brattleboro 

802-254-0254 

MORE NEWS 

Rotary sponsors SIT alumna for 

exchange program to Dominican Republic 

businesspeople and professionals 

between the ages of 25 and 40, 

who have been employed in their 

profession for at least two years. 

The GSE team consists of one 

Rotarian group leader and four 

non-Rotarian team members 

who typically represent various 

professional fields. 

Rotary International pays 

for travel expenses between 

the home and host countries. 

Rotarians in the host country 

provide individual homestays 

for each team member, as well 

as meals and group travel within 

their district. Each team member 

is responsible for health insurance 

coverage and for personal 

expenses and incidentals. Team 

members are welcome to extend 

their stay for individual travel at 

their own expense after the program 

ends. 

During the four-week program, 

team members participate 

in approximately four to 

The Putney School wins inaugural 

‘Vermont Greenest Building Award’ 

The distinction goes to the 

building in Vermont with the 

best annual energy performance. 

To qualify for consideration, 

buildings must consume 50 kilo- 

BTUs per square foot (kbtu/ 

sf/yr) per year, or less. That 

We Accept 

EBT Cards 

Routes 11/30, 

Manchester 

802-362-3083 

five full-day vocational visits, 15 

to 20 club presentations, 10 to 

15 formal visits and social events, 

two to three days at the district 

conference, three to four hours 

per day of cultural and site tours, 

and three to four hours per day of 

free time with host families. Each 

person on the team has interaction 

with others in their profession 

several times during the trip. 

Before departing for the host 

country, team members participate 

in orientation and cultural 

training, develop a close working 

relationship with one another, 

and prepare a group presentation 

to be given at host clubs during 

the tour. The presentation 

will represent Rotary District 

7870, which comprises central 

and southern Vermont and New 

Hampshire. 

For more information, visit 

the club’s website at www. 

brattlebororotaryclub.org . 

standard is roughly 30 percent 

more efficient than the average 

for buildings in the northeast. 

The Field House, which is super-insulated 

and solar powered, 

measures 10 kbtu/sf/yr. 

“Perhaps the bad news is that, 

after three years, the Field House 

is still Vermont’s Greenest 

Building,” said Don Cuerdon, 

director of communications for 

The Putney School. 

“But the good news is that 

VGBN is recognizing efforts to 

make existing and new buildings 

more efficient. We invite anyone 

who wants to see how we built 

ours to schedule a visit and learn 

how this sort of building is sustainable, 

both environmentally 

and economically.” 

VGBN was founded in 2002 

by a group of individuals interested 

in advancing green building 

practices in Vermont, received 

501(c)3 designation in early 

2005, and became the Vermont 

Chapter of the U.S. Green 

Building Council (USGBC) in 

the fall of 2005. 

USGBC Chapters offer opportunities 

for individuals to become 

involved on a local level, to 

help educate, collaborate, and 

network in their communities. 

VGBN maintains links to the 

national organization through 

the Upper Northeast Regional 

Council — a partnership of 

USGBC chapters from Vermont, 

New Hampshire, Maine, 

Massachusetts, Connecticut, 

Rhode Island, and New York 

Upstate. 

This network of green building 

leaders offers opportunities 

to share best practices and resources. 

For more information, 

visit http://vgbn.org ( vgbn.org ).

Dealing with the flood in southern Vermont, one year later 

IRENE 

A Look Back, a Look Ahead

4 So: What Now? 

It’s human nature, after a catastrophe, to 

try and return life to normal as quickly as 

possible. But things will never be the same, 

and the chance of more extreme weather 

looms. By Joyce Marcel. 

12 It Could Have Been Worse 

As bad as Irene was, the Hurricane of 1938 

was even more destructive. By randolph T. 

holhuT. 

15 The Good Rain of Irene 

Poem by naMaya. 

16 Voices of Irene 

Stories of the flood from Wilmington, South 

Newfane, Bartonsville, Brattleboro, and 

other points in southeastern Vermont. Plus: 

a news director keeps the information rolling, 

and a bookstore owner reopens with a 

community’s help. 

26 Still in Need 

One year later, people are still getting their 

lives back on track after the disruption from 

Irene — and, for many, the memories resonate 

emotionally. But help and resources 

are still available. By allison Teague. 

31 Waves in the Woods 

Song/poem by paTTy carpenTer and 

Verandah porche. 

32 A Journalist, a Hurricane, a Hometown 

Where is the buffer when you wonder if the 

people you care about are okay in the town 

that you loved and hated and called home 

for the first 13 years of your life? For this reporter, 

covering Tropical Storm Irene blurs 

the professional with the personal. By olga 

peTers. 

41 Watermarks 

Walking in Brattleboro, we see signs of a 

new normalcy and reminders that we were 

eyewitnesses to our own history. By harral 

haMilTon. 

It was a beautiful day the next morning — sunny, cloudless, pleasant. Looking at the treetops 

and above, it spoke of what made New England attractive to poets and artists. But below lay the 

evidence of the weather’s onslaught, and the quirky distribution of its destruction. Across the 

entire region, riverbeds had been gouged and scored as by passing glaciers, and left to shim- 

mer in the sun, bone white and raw, looking like the cast-away skeletons of a geological ram- 

page. They were strewn with rocks, stones, and boulders which for generations had blended 

in perfect harmony with soil and vegetation, to the delight of fishermen, boaters, and mere 

lovers of nature. 

But that soil was now gone — wide and deep — removing the interstitial substance that had made the 

rivers whole and vibrant. What was left were hundreds of miles of merely hard, broken, shattered wa- 

ter channels, bereft of life and looking like smashed concrete. The vegetation had been scoured from the 

banks, the fish swept away, and the rest made to seem poor and exhausted and humiliated in the falsely 

cheerful sunlight. 

The soil had not vanished, of course. It had simply been removed, as if by scientific process, down to its 

tiniest granules, and distributed by the water across fields, lawns, streets, and into cellars — water that 

had then retreated almost as quickly as it had arrived. 

Homes and garages were full of the resulting muck. Cars were axle-deep in it, business inventories ce- 

mented in place by it, and artifacts like propane tanks, furniture, clothing, toys, and building appliances 

could be found — as half buried, crooked talismen — like mocked Easter Island totems stamped with lo- 

gos like GE and Frigidaire. 

—Newfane mystery writer Archer Mayor, from his forthcoming book, still untitled, which takes place during and 

after Tropical Storm Irene 

IRENE: A Look Back, a Look Ahead 3

So: 

What 

Now? 

It’s human nature, after a catastrophe, 

to try and return life to normal as 

quickly as possible. But things will 

never be the same, and the chance 

of more extreme weather looms. 

By Joyce Marcel 

Yu p, a hard rain fell. And some more hard rain’s 

a-gonna fall. And then some more. 

A year after Tropical Storm-nee-Hurricane-Irene hit Vermont 

and changed just about everything, a few people are still arguing 

whether it was a once-in-a-10-year storm or a once-in-100-year 

storm. 

But most acknowledge this uneasy truth: we’ve entered the 

Era of Climate Change, and Irene might only be the beginning. 

A new report by the Environment America Research and Policy Center called 

“Global Warming and the Increase in Extreme Precipitation from 1948 to 2011” 

concludes that, “Extreme downpours are now happening 30 percent more often 

nationwide than in 1948. In other words, large rain or snowstorms that happened 

once every 12 months, on average, in the middle of the 20th century now happen 

every nine months. Moreover, the largest annual storms now produce 10 percent 

more precipitation, on average.” 

New England has seen the biggest change. According to the report, in New England 

“intense rainstorms and snowstorms [are] now happening 85 percent more often 

than in 1948.” 

And Vermont? It saw “the intensity of the largest storm each year increase by 20 

percent or more.” 

Even before Irene hit Vermont on Aug. 28, 2011, the ground was already saturated 

by abnormal amounts of spring rainfall. Lake Champlain had already overflowed 

its banks. 

But Irene was the kicker. 

“Irene was a reminder we can’t escape inside the borders of our state — that an 

out-of-control world would mean an unlivable Vermont,” environmentalist and 

Middlebury College professor Bill McKibben said. 

“We’ve got to build local resilience as fast as we can, but at the same participate 

in — lead, really — the global movement to bring climate change under control,” 

The Whetstone Brook swells beyond its riverbanks and onto Flat Street in 

Brattleboro. 

4 IRENE: A Look Back, a Look Ahead Michael logerfo 


he added. “Because the best organic farm 

in the world isn’t going to grow anything 

if it washes away down the swollen river.” 

It’s huM an nature, after a catastrophe, 

to try and return life to normal 

as quickly as possible. 

Until Irene, many of us in environmentally-conscious 

Vermont were suspicious 

of people in California who built expensive 

houses on stilts overlooking the ocean, saw 

their homes wash away downhill, and then 

rebuilt them in exactly the same places. 

What were they thinking? 

But now, as we rebuild pieces of Vermont 

more or less in the same places they were 

before the storm, we can’t be so complacent. 

“We go back and put buildings into the 

floodplain or repair buildings in the floodplain, 

then we can’t expect anything more 

than to see the same thing happen when we 

have these kinds of flows,” said Connecticut 

River Steward and State Representative 

David Deen. 

“The floodplains allow rivers to spread 

out. And rivers design themselves to access 

those floodplains as a matter of course. It’s 

just how rivers are. And we should not be 

surprised if it happens again.” 

Relocating a house is hard enough. 

Relocating a whole town sounds impossible. 

But it has been done. Because of the 

difficulty of winter travel, by 1860 the town 

of Newfane had been moved from its old 

location on Newfane Hill down to where 

it is now. 

Oddly, in 1997, well before Irene, the town 

of Wilmington developed a plan to relocate 

the entire downtown to nearby Castle Hill. 

The concern then was the continued 

deterioration of downtown due to traffic 

stress. The enormous effort to pull off 

something like this — cost, infrastructure, 

land ownership, cooperation among townspeople, 

etc. — made the plan a no-go from 

the start. Then came Irene. The Deerfield 

River rose from its banks and downtown 

Wilmington was almost completely 

eMily c . h eath 

Dot’s Restaurant stands battered after the flooding of the Deerfield River through 

the center of Wilmington. 

destroyed. In retrospect, that old relocation 

proposal looks prescient. 

Yet Wilmington is rebuilding itself in 

exactly the same place. 

“I would bet that every day, somewhere 

in Vermont, a landowner, a town official, 

or a state agency is weighing alternatives 

to remove or lessen an encroachment on 

a river corridor or floodplain,” said Mike 

Kline, the rivers program manager for 

the state’s Department of Environmental 

Conservation. 

“These are very hard choices that often 

mean taking a short term loss with the hope 

of a long-term gain,” Kline said. “I think 

Irene has shown us that the risks are real 

and that giving the river room when we 

can and where we can makes good dollars 

and cents.” 

Irene raised many hard questions. 

What should we make of what we’ve been 

through? 

In Brattleboro on Aug. 28, 2011, the peaceful, 

meandering Whetstone Brook turned 

into a raging torrent that flooded the lower 

end of downtown. One of the people who 

documented the disaster for the rest of 

the nation was Brattleboro Community 

Television’s Frederic Noyes. 

“First we lost our electricity for a couple of 

hours,” Noyes said. “When it came back on, 

I tried to see what was going on. So I went 

on Facebook and there were a few flooding 

photos of Flat Street. Soon Flat Street 

became a Mecca for people who couldn’t 

stand to stay at home. 

“I put my family and the video camera in 

the car — we hoped if we got into trouble the 

car would float — and went down the street 

to see the Whetstone Brook. The water was 

within a foot or two of being at the bridge. 

“Further downtown, we could see the 

lumber yard was full of water. We could 

see boxes from Sam’s warehouse floating 

all over the street. We could see alarming 

things from people’s yards floating: the 

smaller propane tanks, lumber, parts of garbage 

cans, children’s toys — anything that 

was left in people’s yards — all heading towards 

the Connecticut River. I never saw the 

Whetstone moving with that velocity and 

ferociousness, sweeping everything away.” 

Noyes and other BCTV stalwarts filmed 

it all. 

“Roland Boyden did his news broadcast 

standing knee deep in floodwaters on Flat 

Street,” Noyes said. “Joe Bushey was in the 

right place at the right time to get the footage 

of the very large 500 gallon propane 

tank going over the Whetstone.” 

The BCTV footage was soon on YouTube, 

where it was picked up by CNBC, CBS, and 

the Weather Channel and, closer to home, 

on WCAX in Burlington. Soon, the whole 

country was seeing headlines like “Vermont 

in Crisis Due to Epic Flooding” 

The Deerfield River. The West River. 

The Whetstone Brook. The Rock River. 

The Saxtons River. The White River. The 

Winooski River. The Neshobe River. The 

Mad River. The Ottauquechee River. The 

Tweed River. The Lamoille River. The list 

went on and on. 

The damage was quick, fierce, and 

startling. 

All over the state, homes were swept away. 

Whole villages like historic Wilmington 

were destroyed. Roads and bridges — including 

several treasured and historic covered 

bridges — were washed away. 

The government offices in Waterbury — 

including, ironically, the main offices for 

both Vermont Emergency Management and 

the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources 

(ANR) — were flooded, and 1,500 state 

workers were displaced. Approximately 225 

municipalities were affected, and about 13 

of them had no roads leading into or out 

of town. About 500 miles of road and 200 

bridges were damaged. 

About 73,000 people lost power, but 

because utilities had brought in repair 

trucks from their out-of-state counterparts 

before the storm hit, 55 percent of the power 

was restored within 24 hours. 

Wells were submerged and boil-water 

advisories were in effect in many places 

around the state. Seventeen municipal 

wastewater treatment plants reported 

damage. 

We are proud 

to be part of a community whose residents 

join together to go above and beyond to help 

their neighbors, especially in times such as we 

witnessed during and after the flood. 

Celebrating 100 Years 

1912 — 2012 

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the Bank of Brattleboro 

Toll Free: (888) 806-6400 

Brattleboro and West Chesterfield, NH 

Member FDIC Equal Housing Lender 

Seven people lost their lives in Vermont. 

That’s a remarkably small number for such 

a major disaster, but it’s still seven people 

too many. 

By January 2012, Gov. Peter Shumlin was 

saying the latest estimate for damages to 

private homes and businesses was $550 million, 

on top of an estimated $240 million in 

state roads and infrastructure costs and 

6 IRENE: A Look Back, a Look Ahead IRENE: A Look Back, a Look Ahead 7

Vermont National Guard members work to fix Route 100 on Sept. 4, 2011. 

around $140 million for local town roads 

and bridges. 

The Federal Emergency Management 

Agency (FEMA) estimated that at least 3,535 

homes had suffered some damage. 

According to statistics from the U.S. 

Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service 

Agency, 476 of Vermont’s precious farms 

were impacted. 

That’s approximately 7,200 acres of hay, 

6,000 acres of corn, 1,750 acres of pasture, 

1,400 acres of sugarbush, 600 acres of vegetables 

and fruits, 225 acres of soybeans, 

and 9,100 acres of farmland. 

The human damage was even more 

overwhelming. 

“Some people have been able to move 

on, while other people are still dealing 

with ramifications from the flooding,” said 

Robin White, a team member of Starting 

Over Strong (SOS), a nonprofit that is helping 

with the mental health fallout from the 

flooding. 

“Some people don’t have their businesses 

up and running yet,” said White, 

who serves on the team helping Windham 

and Windsor counties. “A lot of people who 

have lost their homes are still in some kind 

of alternative housing. Many people are still 

dealing with the loss. 

“There’s a lot of sadness in losing your 

home and memorabilia. What about children 

who lost all their toys? People can give 

them new toys, but it’s not their toys. I work 

with one family who has a girl about 6 or 7 

years old. She’s still very shy, very attached 

to her mother and very anxious every time 

it rains. 

“I always compare it to a grief process. It 

came suddenly and unexpectedly. It takes 

months to even get out of shock. 

“People say, ‘It’s taking every spare moment 

to put my life back to normal, and it 

will be a new normal, because my life won’t 

ever be the same.’” 

Staff Sgt. JiM g reenhill/U.S. a r M y photo 

W hen talking aB out 

Vermonters’ immediate reaction to the 

storm, Sue Minter, the state’s Irene Recovery 

Officer, uses the word “heroic.” 

“I’ve heard it all over the state,” Minter 

said. “Heroism. People sacrificing on behalf 

of their fellow Vermonters. Housing them, 

feeding them, donating clothes. The resort 

communities stepped up. Many of them 

housed flood survivors who were temporarily 

displaced. They had their staff clean 

up the village of Wilmington. 

“I am really compelled to give a shout out 

for our state employees. It was amazing to 

me the sacrifice, dedication, the work ethic, 

the ‘never say die’ mentality. It was because 

of that we were able to get the roads ready by 

winter when no one thought it was possible. 

“It was 24/7, all hands on deck. It was 

the way in which partners collaborated. 

The contracting community worked with 

the Agency of Transportation people. 

Sometimes, historically, these are contentious 

relationships. 

“But in this they were united. In so many 

ways, Vermonters have stepped up and it 

continues on.” 

Money was raised in a remarkable variety 

of ways. 

Vermont musicians like Grace Potter 

and the Nocturnals gave a concert, while 

Phish reunited to do a concert that raised 

$1.2 million. 

The Northeast Organic Farmers 

Association Vermont held an online auction. 

Vermont Public Radio spent a day 

raising money for storm victims; more than 

4,600 donors contributed over $628,000 for 

the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund. 

Ric Cabot of Darn Tough Vermont donated 

thousands of pairs of Darn Tough 

socks — the same kinds of socks that the 

Armed Forces buys to use in Afghanistan 

— to the Vermont Food Bank for distribution 

to hard-hit communities. 

The state put out a license plate that says, 

“I am Vermont Strong” and sold thousands 

to raise money. (More funds are needed. 

People can donate online at vtstrong.vermont.gov.) 

All was not entirely rosy. Some 

Vermonters took advantage of the state’s 

laissez-faire emergency reconstruction 

attitude to increase their property at the 

expense of a river. Some dug for gravel and 

deepened channels that will just make the 

water come hurtling past faster next time. 

“Damage suffered from Tropical Storm 

Irene required immediate and in some 

cases extensive stream channel alteration 

to protect life and property and rebuild 

critical transportation infrastructure,” said 

the annual report of the Vermont Fish and 

Wildlife Department. 

“However, a significant amount of instream 

activity was also conducted without 

proper consultation and oversight and for 

reasons beyond necessary flood recovery,” 

the report continued. “These activities continued 

for several months after the flood 

event and covered a wide area of the central 

and southern portion of the state.” 

Some roads and bridges were repaired 

poorly because of haste and/or a shortage 

of materials. Earlier this month, officials 

from the state’s transportation and natural 

resource agencies met to announce that 

323 sites around the state either need to be 

reworked or repaired. 

“None of this is a surprise,” Justin 

Johnson, the Agency of Natural Resources’ 

deputy commissioner, told reporters. “It 

was fully expected that we’d be back a second 

time.” 

It ’s B een a year since Irene hit 

the state. Where are we now? 

FEMA agreed to give the state a 90-percent 

match for projects that qualified for 

public assistance; Vermont has received 

more than $100 million in public assistance 

so far. 

Now the state is struggling with FEMA 

over the semantics of replacing the 

Waterbury office and hospital complex. 

About $80 million rests on whether the 

complex was “damaged” or “destroyed.” 

Not receiving FEMA money means the 

state has to foot the whole bill, something 

it has no budget for. 

“It’s not clear that communities and the 

state are going to get the kind of aid and support 

they all anticipated,” said Paul Bruhn, 

executive director of the Preservation Trust 

of Vermont. “Bennington is having to appeal 

a decision. They got no funding and 

had anticipated approximately $4 million 

from FEMA for road and river work. 

“We worked very hard on the Waterbury 

Complex; the presence of state employees 

in Waterbury is crucial to the success of 

downtown Waterbury. If the state doesn’t 


get the funding to rebuild, who knows what 

will happen? 

“There’s a lot of disappointment. I hope 

it doesn’t grow, but I think there’s a very 

real chance that disappointment will grow 

as time goes on. In the end, it will make it 

tougher and tougher for organizations and 

some businesses to survive.” 

Before Irene, a remarkably low number 

of Vermont homeowners had flood insurance 

— it’s usually not included in regular 

homeowners’ insurance. So in terms of 

homes, the Holy Grail of emergency relief 

again was FEMA. 

And that appears to have failed 

Vermonters as well. 

When FEMA first came into Vermont, 

figures like $30,000 were tossed around for 

a home that was damaged or destroyed. It 

was certainly not enough, but it was a start. 

“When we first met with folks from 

FEMA, immediately after the flood, it 

seemed to be clear that if homeowners had 

at least $35,000 of uninsured damage, they 

would get a $30,000 grant from FEMA,” 

Bruhn said. 

“If they had a $100,000 home, they would 

still get $30,000,” he said. “It turns out that 

the average grant is $6,000. That’s the average. 

According to an April state report, 

the average FEMA assistance provided 

was $5,500.” 

The Trust was able to dip into its own 

funding, Bruhn said. 

“We could re-grant to a variety of important 

community gathering places like bookstores, 

cafes, restaurants, a bowling alley 

in Wilmington, as well as nonprofit organizations 

and municipalities,” Bruhn said. 

“As part of our due diligence, we asked 

the applicants to let us know the specifics of 

their financial situation. And it’s amazing 

that a lot of these businesses and community 

organizations had to go out and borrow 

$100,000 or $200,000 or $300,000 to 

rebuild. They got low-interest loans, which 

was great. But it’s still new debt. 

“So in the short run, rebuilding was part 

So in the short run, 

rebuilding was part 

of the challenge. But 

the next part will be 

paying off that debt. 

—paul bruhn, 

preservation trust 

of vermont 

of the challenge. But the next part will be 

paying off that debt. When the flood hit us, 

a friend of mine from England called me 

and said, ‘We got hammered with a flood 

ten years ago in my community and it has 

taken us 10 years to recover.’ 

“On the positive note, there is something 

indomitable about the Vermont spirit,” 

Bruhn said. “Thank goodness we have it.” 

Farms recovered fairly rapidly. 

“Most of the farms that were damaged 

have pulled through,” said Vern Grubinger, 

a University of Vermont professor and an 

extension service agricultural expert. “Some 

are still dealing with economic and physical 

loss. Especially small horticulture. They had 

lots of community support, but dairy farms 

had more financial support.” 

Philanthropic initiatives raised $3 million 

for agriculture, Grubinger said. People donated 

time and material. Low interest rates 

were made available. 

“In general, people regrouped,” Grubinger 

said. “The lessons learned? It’s important 

to think about resilience.” 

More growers are signing up for crop insurance, 

for example. The Crop Insurance 

Program worked for those who had it, but 

it wasn’t designed for diversity. 

In the wake of Irene, the Farm Service 

Agency has reached out to apple and vegetable 

growers and increased its constituency. 

But some things are complicated. For 

example, if you base your insurance on the 

market price of your crops, how do you insure 

a community-supported agriculture 

(CSA) farm that doesn’t really sell a product 

but a piece of its own seasonal success? 

“There’s still some work to be done,” 

Grubinger said. 

“That’s a silver lining — lot of people have 

worked on thinking about how to make the 

programs better if we have an event like 

this in the future. 

“Take the dairy side. There were a lot 

of microtoxins — fungi — that weren’t 

well understood. Now the state has done 

a lot of work with farmers on testing feed. 

There’s been a bunch of technical knowledge 

gained. 

“Not that anyone wanted to know that 

stuff, but it’s important to be prepared,” 

Grubinger said. 

As it turned out, Irene’s timing was good 

for fish. 

“All the spring spawners, bass and trout, 

had finished,” said Connecticut River 

Steward Deen. “All the young had been born 

and they just had to take their chances in the 

high floods. And the fall spawners — brook 

trout and brown trout— had not started yet. 

They start spawning in October. 

“There were losses in terms of the number 

of fish killed, but their bodies were swept 

down to Long Island Sound and we don’t 

have an accurate count. 

“Without the extra disturbance of big 

yellow machines in the rivers across the 

months of September and October, channelizing 

the rivers, normal populations would 

recover in two to three years,” Deen said. 

But given the invasive river work, “it 

could take up to a decade,” he said. “That 

means 78 miles of river will take a decade 

or longer to recover. It depends on how the 

river was treated after the storm.” 

Th at’s it in a nutshell: it 

all depends on how we treat our rivers. And 

that raises questions of cost, of infrastructure, 

of cooperation, of human nature, of 

psychology — and of understanding. 

After Irene, Gov. Shumlin said, “Together 

we will rebuild our state better than the 

way Irene found us. And we will be stronger 

for it.” 

But if we don’t confront the issue of 

how we treat our rivers, we will find that 

in our very human need to restore things 

to the way they were, we may be making a 

huge error. 

“In too many cases, folks have an emotional 

attachment to their home or business 

and a financial attachment if they were to 

not rebuild, forfeit their lost investment, 

and default on their existing mortgage,” 

said river management engineer Todd 

Menees of the Vermont Department of 

Environmental Conservation. 

“The post-flood fix seems to be a good 

tradeoff using insurance settlements to 

rebuild, but they do not see the societal 

costs of their next insurance settlement 

or of a future owner rebuilding again after 

the next flood, or God forbid someone dies 

in the next flood from the rebuilt project. 

“How do we rebuild better to withstand 

the next flood? In Vermont, collectively we 

must change our mindset as a society. We 

can’t change the forces of nature but we can 

change how we react to Mother Nature’s 

fury by giving rivers the room to move in 

the floodplain. 

“Or we will put ourselves in harm’s way 

again.” 

Joyce Marcel is a freelance reporter and 

longtime feature writer for Vermont Business 

Magazine. She writes a monthly column for 

The Commons and contributes regularly to 

So Vermont Arts & Living. 

Rivers throughout the state chewed 

through Vermont’s infrastructure. 

Here, Route 4/Route 100 south of 

Killington was completely destroyed. 

l arS g ange/ManS field h eliflight 


WORSE 

As bad as Irene was, the Hurricane of 1938 was even more destructive 

Tr o p i c a l 

St orM Irene’s 

devastation has 

evoked comparisons 

with other natural 

disasters to hit 

Windham County. 

As bad as Irene 

was in parts of the county, 

it was not nearly as catastrophic 

as the storm that 

remains the benchmark for 

weather disasters in New 

England — the Great New 

England Hurricane of 1938. 

It struck with little warning 

on Sept. 21, 1938, and by 

the end of that day, nearly 

700 people — almost 400 in 

Rhode Island alone — died 

in the storm. Nearly 1,800 

were injured. 

It’s hard to imagine, in our 

media saturated age, what 

it must have been like that day to have a 

storm so deadly and destructive sweep in 

unannounced. But it did, and those who 

It could have been 

By r andolph t . h olhut 

lived through it would remember it for their 

rest of their lives. 

Se pteMBer 1938 was a rainy one in 

Windham County. For five days, from the 

afternoon of Sept. 17 to the next Wednesday 

morning, the region saw almost continuous 

overcast skies and about 7 inches of rain. 

UVM l andS cape c hange p rograM 

Boards mark the spot where the Bell Bridge used to be in 

Whitingham after it was washed away by flooded rivers caused by 

the Hurricane of 1938. 

The Whetstone Brook flooded Flat, Elm, 

Frost, and Williams streets, as well as portions 

of West Brattleboro as it surged past 

the previous record-setting flood stage of 

March 1936. The Connecticut and West rivers 

were rising fast and threatened to top 

their banks as they had two years earlier. 

But while Brattleboro was dealing with 

flooding on the afternoon of Sept. 21, bigger 

troubles were just scant hours away. 

Earlier that week, ships in the South 

Atlantic radioed the U.S. 

Weather Bureau that a large 

storm was racing across the 

ocean and was headed for 

Florida and the Keys. But it 

shifted course, curving toward 

the Carolinas. 

By 7 a.m. on Sept. 21, the 

storm passed Cape Hatteras, 

N.C. Storm warnings were 

posted along the Eastern 

Seaboard as far north as 

Maine, but the Weather 

Bureau had no idea how big 

or how powerful a force was 

about to hit. 

There hadn’t been a major hurricane 

in the Northeast since Sept. 23, 1815, and 

Vermont hadn’t seen one since 1788. 

In 1938, hurricanes didn’t have names. 

There were no aerial reconnaissance of 

storms, no radar, no weather satellites. All 

the Weather Bureau’s forecasters had to 

go on were temperature and barometric 

readings, observations from other weather 

stations, and reports voluntarily radioed in 

from ships at sea. 

Even though barometers in the weather 

offices were measuring 

barometric pressure at unprecedented 

low levels, 

the forecasters figured the 

storm would turn harmlessly 

out to sea after passing 

Cape Hatteras. Instead, 

it was pushed into a channel 

formed by two high-pressure 

areas and headed north at a 

speed of nearly 60 mph. 

This is how one of the 

deadliest hurricanes of the 

20th century struck without 

warning the 13 million 

people who inhabited the 

area between Long Island and Montreal. 

Se veral factors made this 

storm deadlier than most. It was coming 

at high tide and would make its landfall 

over warm and rain-soaked soil. With the 

ground saturated and the air warm, this 

hurricane would maintain nearly its full 

force all the way to the Canadian border. 

Long Island was first to be hit just after 

2 p.m. The storm surge — a wave of water 

40 feet high — hit with such force that its 

impact was registered on a seismograph 

in Alaska. 

In just one Long Island town — 

Westhampton — 153 of the 179 houses there 

vanished, smashed to bits by the wind and 

water, leaving 29 people dead in that town 

alone. If the storm had come three weeks 

earlier, when the Hamptons were still filled 

with summer vacationers, thousands more 

would have died. 

The storm then moved across Long Island 

Sound and smashed into the Connecticut 

and Rhode Island shorelines around 3 p.m. 

In Providence, a 100-foot high wave 

swept up Naragannsett Bay and crashed 

into the downtown, drowning pedestrians 

and drivers trapped in their cars. When the 

wave receded, downtown Providence was 

under 13 feet of water. 

On the coast, houses and cottages that 

UVM l andS cape c hange p rograM 

This house in Whitingham was ripped off its foundation by high 

winds during the Hurricane of 1938. 

lined the beaches of villages such as Old 

Saybrook and Stonington in Connecticut, 

and Watch Hill and Westerly in Rhode 

Island, were obliterated. Downtown New 

London was ablaze, and firefighters could 

not control the conflagration. 

Ships, trees, and telephone poles blocked 

what was left of the New Haven railroad’s 

Shore Line route — the main rail corridor 

between Boston and New York City. Tracks 

were washed out in many places. Not one 

highway in Connecticut was passable to 

traffic. 

No one knew for certain how hard the 

wind blew. At the Blue Hill Observatory 

outside Boston — 90 miles from the storm’s 

center — the wind was measured at a steady 

121 mph, with gusts up to 186 mph. Salt spray 

coated windows as far north as Montpelier, 

249 miles north of Long Island Sound. 

The storm then swept north up the 

Connecticut River valley, reaching 

Brattleboro by late afternoon and, still 

packing winds well in excess of 100 mph, 

flattening tobacco barns filled with that 

year’s crop, destroying apple orchards and 

maple groves, and toppling elms and oaks 

that had stood for hundreds of years. 

Ev ery streaM and river 

in Windham County was now raging, the 

result of all the rain that had fallen in the 

five days before the storm. 

The Deerfield River 

took out a cement bridge 

in Wilmington. Covered 

bridges in Newfane, Grafton, 

Wardsboro, and West Dover 

were destroyed, and towns 

such as Windham, Athens, 

Brookline, and Newfane 

were isolated for days as 

roads washed away. 

In Brattleboro, four huge 

trees on Cedar Street were 

toppled like a row of dominos, 

one behind the other. Another 

huge tree crashed into the 

home of U.S. Sen. Ernest W. Gibson on Oak 

Street. Chimneys were blown off houses, 

windows were smashed by flying debris, and 

parked cars were flattened by fallen trees. 

Within the county, there were two 

deaths: Leonard Whitbeck, 53, of Waban, 

Mass., who was crushed by a fallen tree 

in Westminster West, and Roger Miller, a 

2-year-old who was swept out of the arms of 

a rescuer by floodwaters in West Guilford. 

By nightfall, the remains of the storm 

were in Montreal. Hundreds were dead or 

missing, tens of thousands were homeless, 

and New England was totally isolated from 

the rest of the nation. 

The next day was bright and sunny 

in New England. The weather was the only 

thing that was normal. 

Ten days of frantic labor restored train 

service between Boston and New York. 

It was well over a month before normal 

telephone service was restored; calls from 


Boston to New York City had to be routed 

through London. 

More than 9,000 homes were destroyed 

and almost 100 bridges were washed away. 

More than 20,000 miles of phone and 

electric lines were knocked down. 

There was more than $6.2 million in damage 

(more than $15 billion in today’s dollars). 

It would take close to five years to clear 

the forests of the estimated 275 million trees 

— including a third of Vermont’s sugar 

maples — that were toppled. 

Ot her large hurricanes would 

strike New England in the 1940s and 1950s, 

but many lessons of the Hurricane of 1938 

prevented death and destruction on the 

scale of that disaster. Better weather forecasting 

and monitoring of New England’s 

rivers increased the warning time. Never 

again would a hurricane or flood catch the 

region by surprise. 

Federal flood control projects tamed 

the region’s major rivers. Dams in North 

Springfield, Jamaica, and Townshend 

were built in Vermont, part of a regional 

network of reservoirs and dams to control 

the main tributaries of the Connecticut 

River. Dikes, levees, and floodwalls were 

built in Springfield, Holyoke, Chicopee, 

and Northampton. 

But as bad as the flooding was around 

southern Vermont after Irene, the 1936 

flood still holds most the records. 

Flood stage on the Connecticut River at 

the U.S. Geological Survey’s observation 

station in North Walpole, N.H. is 28 feet. 

On March 19, 1936, the river crested 43.80 

feet, which remains the all-time record. 

The crest at North Walpole was 39.10 feet 

in 1938. The crest for Irene came on Aug. 

29, 2011 at 31.36 feet. 

Conversely, two of the local Connecticut 

River tributaries without flood control dams 

— the Williams and the Saxtons rivers — 

shattered the all-time records last year. 

The Saxtons River crested at 19.57 feet on 

Aug. 28, 2011, well above the 10-foot flood 

stage. Also on that date, the Williams River 

crested at 17.94 feet, more than double the 

flood stage of 8 feet. 

In the case of Irene, Vermonters knew 

the storm was coming nearly a week in advance 

and knew about the heavy rains Irene 

would bring nearly two days in advance. 

Even with Irene fresh in our minds, the 

Great New England Hurricane of 1938 remains 

an almost mythological event in New 

England weather lore, and the standard by 

which all other weather disasters are judged. 

Randolph T. Holhut works as deputy editor of 

The Commons. 

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17 Belmont Avenue • Brattleboro, VT 05301 • 802-257-0341 • www.bmhvt.org 

The good rains of 

Irene fell today. 

The winds shrieked and 

oceans of rain 

fell across the East. 

Windows rattled and 

doors threatened to 

bust open. 

Debris swept 

through the streets, 

houses and cars 

carried away by the flood. 

Radio and television 

inundated us with 

the news of the impending 

apocalypse 

The g ood r ain of i rene 

…as the good rain 

fell. 

The good rain fell 

not gentle 

nor kind 

not in goodness 

in tenderness 

but in the telling 

of the tale. 

Rains swept 

aside fences 

and washed over 

stone walls. 

Rivalries, jealousies, 

mistrust, old arguments, 

feuds and misunderstandings 

washed away in the torrent 

…as the good rain 

fell. 

The electricity was out 

for days and 

homes torn 

away from their 

foundations. 

Neighbors and strangers 

came together. 

Our homes opened for 

the homeless 

as we shared meals 

by candlelight. 

Musicians played 

at the Red Cross. 

A thousand acts 

and more of 

kindness and 

charity during 

and after the storm. 

… and the good rain 

fell. 

The good rain 

fell. 

Namaya is a renowned performance poet, 

story teller, multimedia artist, musician, and 

playwright who has performed throughout the 

US, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, 

and Asia. 

M ichael logerfo 


v oices of i rene 

Evan Johnson 

Marlboro 

Last year, when a hurricane came up the 

coast and hit Vermont with intensity not 

before experienced, I was at school, and my 

entire knowledge of what had transpired 

came from the community newspaper I 

had mailed to me. 

Personal observations and miscellany about 

southern Vermont’s devastation 

This was my first time returning since 

the flood. It was after dark, and the rain 

and wind picked up as we entered the town 

on a new road. 

The stream to our right had washed out 

the old one and ripped it downstream. The 

defrosters were failing, so we had to creep 

toward the traffic signal, shining green 

through the fogged windshield. It was dark 

and the streaked rain on the window kept 

me from seeing clearly. 

Maybe the poor visibility was for the best 

because all that stood out were the sheets of 

plywood over windows and doors, the empty 

gravel lots where the buildings once stood, 

the vacancy and the bleakness. 

I didn’t want to know what it might look 

like in the daylight. 

The stoplight turned red, and we stopped 

in front of the diner where my father went 

the day I was born. As the story goes, he 

sat at the counter and when the waitress 

came to take his order, the first thing he 

said was “I have a son.” She gave him his 

breakfast for free. 

No more pink neon sign now as we sat at 

the intersection — just a wet American flag 

blowing in a strong October wind. 

We stopped at a shopping plaza and let our 

passenger out to meet his ride. In front 

of our parked car, a streetlight shone on 

a white building with peeling paint and a 

sagging roof, topped with a sad-looking 

cross. 

When the storm came, the water swept 

down the inclined parking lot and pooled 

around the low-lying church where I was 

Rebuilding a business, 

with the help of a community 

Lisa Sullivan, the owner of 

Bartleby’s Books and Music on 

Route 9 in Wilmington, witnessed 

the flood firsthand with her husband, 

Phil Taylor. 

“The water came in in waves,” said 

Sullivan. 

The couple spent the morning of Aug. 

28 moving books on the store’s lower 

bookshelves to higher shelves. They 

didn’t expect a lot of water, she said. 

According to Sullivan, as the water 

rose outside their store, Taylor, a contractor, 

worried the water’s weight pushing 

from outside would damage the 

building. To relieve the pressure, he decided 

to open the front door. 

A whiskey barrel planter full of flowers 

rushed into the store on the flood waters. 

The smell of propane drifted in with the 

rising waters. 

The couple escaped the flood by running 

to the building’s second floor, 

crossing to a back set of stairs, and 

climbing the steep hill behind the building. 

Sullivan said they watched the flood 

from Ray Hill. 

A few hours later, she said, they made 

their way back to the store and peeked 

down the stairs from the second floor. 

The flood had knocked over book 

shelves. She estimates they saved about 

15 percent of their inventory. 

It took three months to rebuild 

Bartleby’s, Sullivan said. The business 

replaced its stock, shelving, and major 

utilities. Sullivan and Taylor also took 

the flood as an opportunity to remodel 

the store. They opened the second store 

with more inventory and seating, and 

added a small coffee bar. 

Flood insurance covered about half 

the bookstore’s losses, said Sullivan. 

Taylor also incorporated floodproofing 

measures into the building’s 

remodel. 

lynn Barrett/So VerM ont a rtS & l i V ing 

Lisa Sullivan shortly after the 

reopening of Bartleby’s Books and 

Music. 

Two days after the storm, Sullivan remembers 

20 people, half of them strangers, 

volunteered to help haul out the 

waterlogged store. 

Sullivan reopened the store on “Black 

Friday,” the day after Thanksgiving and 

traditionally the biggest shopping day 

of the year. The line of patrons stretched 

out the door, she said. 

For Sullivan, rebuilding her business 

was the easiest part of recovering. 

She describes the decision as “straight 

forward.” 

The town was destroyed, they had to 

rebuild, she said. There needed to be 

some hope. 

The hardest aspect, said Sullivan, was 

not knowing how to help her friends, 

neighbors, and fellow business owners 

hit by Irene. 

When asked if any blessings came 

with Irene, Sullivan answered it how the 

community came together more than in 

her 11 years living in the area. 

She compares herself to where she 

was a year ago as more tired, but stronger. 

—Olga Peters 


c arol r o SS and c hriS t rieB ert 

As was the case all through Vermont, friends helped Ross and Triebert (inset) clean up and rebuild. 

c arol r o SS and c hriS t rieB ert 

Dylan Brown, son of excavator Todd Brown, works with his dad to get the 3 feet 

of sand and silt off the Ross/Triebert property. 

baptized as an infant. 

The congregation had recently gutted it 

of anything salvageable, and now it was an 

empty hulk, ready for the bulldozer. 

I let my dog piss on the lawn. 

Dad and I walked to the grocery store for 

pasta and milk. To the left of the Shaws in 

what had been a Rite Aid months before 

was now the town office. The records, I was 

told, were mostly intact; someone had the 

foresight to evacuate them before the rain. 

A sign was taped to the window reading: 

Wilmington: Where Amazing Happens. 

I wasn’t sure if it was ironic, but I 

smirked, thinking about that sign. We got 

back in the car with our groceries and drove 

7 more miles to home. 

Dad filled me in on the other details, 

the ones I didn’t read about: dead animals 

floating in the street; a high school soccer 

field covered in silt, and full gas containers 

floating downriver towards a power plant. 

At home, most things in the basement 

were placed on card tables to keep photo 

albums or my mother’s childhood doll collection 

safe and dry. We live high on a 

mountain; we were the lucky ones. 

After everyone had gone to bed, I stayed 

up and started writing. 

I knew what I had seen, but I didn’t believe 

it, so I wrote as I would fiction. 

It couldn’t have been true. 

It was a trick, like something seen 

through so much rain, blurred as I moved 

by in the cold wet dark. 

EVAN JOHNSON studies communications 

and journalism at Ithaca College. 

Chris Triebert and Carol Ross 

South Newfane 

The Rock River carved out a completely 

new direction during the flood. It tore out 

entire sections of our road. Dozens of trees 

were hurled down the river and created a 

huge logjam, which washed houses down 

river and buried some in mud and branches 

up to the second floor. I cannot begin to describe 

the devastating destruction the storm 

brought to our community. A three-mile 

stretch of Dover Road in South Newfane 

is ripped apart. 

We fared well by comparison to many 

of our neighbors. Our house is okay but 

the basement flooded, all the systems are 

gone; the studio floor is covered with mud 

and everything stinks and is covered with 

sand dust; the cabin was ripped from its 

foundation and moved about 10 feet but 

luckily got hung up on a tree that saved it 

from going over the bank; the garage is collapsing 

and will have to be destroyed and a 

new garage built; the driveway is washed 

out and impassible; the shed and gas tanks 

are flung into the woods; the septic system 

is swamped; there’s 2 feet of sand covering 

our yard; our gardens and landscape are 

completely ravaged; and the iron bridge 

at the head of our driveway dropped 6 feet 

into the river. 

But we are thankful to be alive and still 

have our home. 

I’m also so thankful to our local volunteer 

fire department guys who risked their lives 

to go house to house and evacuate people. 

They came to our door about 9:30 a.m. and 

said “Get out — now!” With that, the river 

broke through its banks and began to devour 

our land. We made it out just in time. 

Since the flood, the outpouring of community 

support is incredible. All our neighbors 

with power are making dinner for 

those of us without power and we share 

a huge common meal each night. We feel 

so connected to this place, this land, this 

river, and this community in ways beyond 

anything we’ve experienced before. 

CHRIS TRIEBERT and CAROl ROSS are 

commercial and fine artists who are rebuilding 

their business, Rock River Studio. 


“Visions of the Rock River” 

paintings by Maureen Tadlock 

Imagination and Transformation 

Studio and Gallery 

22 High Street 4th Floor, Brattleboro 

Opening reception Friday Sept. 7th 5 - 8 pm 

Saturdays in Sept. 11:30 - 2 pm 

and by appointment 

802-257-5885 

Experienced 

Goods 

77 Flat St, Brattleboro 

(802) 254-5200 

www.brattleborohospice.org 

August 29, 2012 

This is to express my sincere gratitude for the 

overwhelming generosity the community has 

shown Experienced Goods before, during, and 

after Tropical Storm Irene. Our goal is to raise 

money to support Brattleboro Area Hospice. 

Thankfully, we’re able to continue to support 

their mission of providing non-medical assistance 

to the terminally ill and their loved ones. 

Without hesitation, Gemma Champoli, Jenni 

Reichman, Chris John, Sarah Rice, and Chris 

Gabriel all rolled up their sleeves and asked 

“where do we start” to rebuild? Within six 

weeks after the storm, we resumed business as 

usual. The mutual support and effort put forth 

by this remarkable team is a reminder that anything 

can be accomplished given the care and 

commitment of a dedicated group of people. 

This is also to acknowledge our former staff 

at Experienced Goods Home Furnishings 

on Elliot Street. Although Irene was not the 

entire cause of the store’s closing, it had a 

huge financial impact. Many thanks go out to 

Tom Harris, Karen Abel, Liza King and Dar 

Tavernier-Singer, for their dedication. 

Very cordially, 

Karen Zamojski, Store Manager 

John Seabrook 

New York, N.Y. 

Two days after Hurricane Irene passed 

through Vermont, you can still hear the 

sound of roaring water virtually everywhere. 

One of the saddest YouTube videos 

showing the unbelievable violence along the 

state’s ordinarily placid waterways is the 

20-second clip shot by Susan Hammond, 

of Lower Bartonsville, in the southeastern 

part of the state. 

Perhaps it’s the simple, humble way that 

the Bartonsville Covered Bridge seems to 

say goodbye, bowing first at its far end, then 

slipping behind the trees while keeping its 

structure, and its dignity, intact until its 

peaked roof slips into the Williams River. 

Perhaps it’s the grief in the voices of the 

onlookers. We all know that tourists like to 

take pictures of Vermont’s iconic covered 

bridges; what this clip shows is the deep 

affection that Vermonters feel for these 

structures, and the terrible sense of loss 

when one disappears. 

Most bridges are simply crossings, a 

means from one place to the next. But 

covered bridges seem like dwellings. They 

give a sort of permanence to transitions, 

and impart to the otherwise ordinary act of 

driving somewhere a special texture and a 

mystery. Perhaps their claim on the imagination 

has something to do with that momentous 

crossing everyone makes, to death. 

Vermont has more covered bridges per 

square mile than any other state, more 

than 100 altogether. Most were built in 

the 19th century. Long before automobiles, 

their echoing interiors rang with hooves 

and cart wheels. 

The Bartonsville bridge dates from 1870, 

and was, at 151 feet, one of the longest. 

It was a fine example of the “American 

Town wooden lattice” style of construction, 

which is basically just wooden planks 

woven together. 

In the great flood of November, 1927, 

a much bigger natural catastrophe than 

Irene, more than 1,200 bridges around the 

state were destroyed. Those that remained 

standing earned the respect of the survivors 

who lived near them, and who probably 

identified with them in some ways: rugged, 

reliable, nothing fancy. 

Almost all covered bridges are singlelane, 

and the act of pulling over and letting 

the oncoming car pass, and giving a 

little wave, always feels neighborly. They 

are dimly-lit and cooled by the water underneath, 

which you can sometimes see 

through gaps at the sides. 

Some are built high enough above the 

water to make them prized jumping spots 

in the summertime, and if you leapt from a 

particularly high one as a kid (like the covered 

bridge at Quechee, which you can see 

taking a pounding in other YouTube videos, 

but which miraculously survived), sucking 

up your courage, trying to point your toes 

to avoid smacking the water flat-footed, 

you remember the experience every time 

you cross over it. 

All of that one can hear in the strangled 

cries of those who watched the end of the 

Bartonsville bridge. “I’m sad!” we hear a 

man’s voice cry out, and it conveys both 

pain and a kind of wonder at feeling so 

much sorrow over a bridge. 

JOHN SEABROOk works as a staff writer 

at The New Yorker, where this piece first 

appeared on the magazine’s News Desk 

blog (www.newyorker.com/online/ 

blogs/newsdesk). 

Peter Case 

Brattleboro 

The morning of Aug. 28, my wife and I 

sat around the house fully prepared for an 

event. We were ready to sit without power; 

we were ready to brave whatever Mother 

Nature threw at us. 

As 9 a.m. bled into 9:30 a.m. and nothing 

seemed to be happening, we hopped into 

the car and took a ride. The streets were eerily 

quiet from Brattleboro to Putney. But 

as we rolled back through town and got to 

the Kyle Gilbert Memorial Bridge, my wife 

took a look at the Whetstone, and yelled to 

c harlie hUnter/iMage © 2011 hUnter StU dio. 

The Bartonsville Covered Bridge, lost to Irene floodwaters. Limited 

edition prints are available at www.hunter-studio.com. 

pull into the Co-op parking lot. 

The Whetstone was high — the highest 

I’d ever seen it — and making a furious 

noise. 

My wife turned to me and asked, “You 

need to get to the station, don’t you?” 

I arrived at the radio station and quickly 

established a game plan. Gil Burns would 

stay in studio, while Gorty Baldwin and I 

hit the road to report the story and record 

audio (“actualities”). 

Our first venture took us down Williams 

Before and After Irene 

Brattleboro Rotary Club 

Can Be Seen! 

Throughout its history, 

Brattleboro Rotary Club has 

provided service projects 

benefiting our local community. 

Boys and Girls Club basketball 

court, Living Memorial Park 

sno guns, Glen Park mobile home 

cleanup, gifts for seniors, 

and over $350,000 in local 

scholarships are just a few. 

To learn more, visit 

brattlebororotaryclub.org 

Brattleboro Rotary Club 

“Having fun, doing good” 

The Newfane Country Store 

...a unique Vermont experience 

A delightful step back in time, 

from old fashioned penny candy 

to jacks to tiddlywinks... 

a vast array of beautiful handmade quilts... 

unique gifts and special treats... 

a relaxing shopping experience... 

stop in and see what makes 

our store so special 

The Newfane Country Store 

On the Newfane Common 

802 365-7916 

newfanecountrystore.com 


In Wilmington. 

p eter c a S e 

Street, where we noticed a fully mature pine tree tearing down the tiny 

Whetstone Brook. I never saw the tree take out the electric pole, but I did see 

the high tension wire dropped onto the hood of a car before shorting out. 

That noise will most likely stick with me for the rest of my life. 

We were forced to back up and head toward Western Avenue to continue 

our reporting, 15 minutes before Williams Street would wash away. 

When we arrived at the parking garage to survey the damage on Flat 

Street, there was a foot of water; before we left, it would rise to 4 feet. We 

watched as 1,000-gallon propane tanks got ripped off their moorings and 

rifled downstream, leaving a trail of propane in the air as they hit concrete 

walls and building foundations. That, too, comes with a noise you 

don’t soon forget. 

I watched the doors to Sam’s Department Store storage facility blow 

open like a car hit them, releasing thousands of dollars’ worth of inventory 

into the flood waters and downstream. 

We ventured over to the Farmers’ Market, all under water. We tried to 

get to West Brattleboro but couldn’t because of the extensive flooding of 

the roadways, so we drove to the Marina and stood on the bridge in utter 

amazement as we watched a bundle of 250 two-by-fours go bobbing by. 

Fully mature tree after fully mature tree floated downstream as if each 

had been harvested for wood. We saw refrigerators, cars, and furniture 

in the water that day. 

I stood on that bridge and watched someone’s 

dresser float downstream, and only 

then did I realize the personal impact this 

storm was having on people. 

The next morning, I got a scratchy cell 

phone call from Wardsboro that said we’re 

missing a big part of the story. The caller 

told me that the town was now an island 

and that Wilmington was gone. 

My heart sank. 

I did a lot of living in that valley. 

Wilmington was gone? 

I called Laura Sibilia, then the director of 

the Mount Snow Chamber of Commerce, 

and asked a simple question: “How bad 

is it?” 

Her simple, one-word answer: “Bad.” 

I headed to Wilmington on Tuesday to 

air an emergency meeting from the West 

Dover Elementary school. The air reeked 

of petroleum, there were picnic tables in 

trees, and stores were completely emptied 

by floodwaters. The old flood-level mark on 

the town hall from 1938 had been eclipsed 

by more than a foot. 

With the inception of the smart phone, 

YouTube was the place to see truly up-todate 

footage. As I found myself scrolling 

through hours of video, I found a clip of 

a random paper plate with an arrow on it. 

The water was splashing onto it. 

I knew that plate; it was in Grafton. The 

day before the storm, I had participated in 

a mountain bike race at Grafton Ponds, on 

a course marked with paper plates with arrows 

drawn on them. 

I had passed by that plate at least six 

times the Saturday before, so I also knew 


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Williams Street in Brattleboro falls into the raging Whetstone. 

that it was at least 5 feet off the ground. 

It took a minute to dial it in, because the 

nearby building and bridge were gone. As 

was most of Grafton. 

Stronger Together! 

Our community, our farmers, and 

our friends and neighbors have 

rebounded so far thanks to our 

collaborative efforts. 

We applaud all who continue 

to make a difference, working 

cooperatively together. 

PETER “FISH” CASE works as operations 

manager/program director of WKVT. His 

weekly column appears in the Reformer. 

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Tiger Press 

p eter c a S e 

Calming the fears of his listening audience 

The day of Irene, Tim Johnson, news 

director for WTSA AM-FM, started 

broadcasting and updating social 

media before 6 a.m. 

Johnson, who has reported on the 

Connecticut River Valley for nearly four 

decades, and his colleagues stayed late into 

the evening with the aim of providing listeners 

with information. 

The station acted as a conduit of information 

for everyone from the governor 

to highway crews to weather forecasters. 

Johnson said he tried to provide information 

and a voice of calm. 

“It’s going to be okay and calm some 

fears,” he tried to convey to listeners. 

For Johnson, Irene served as the first 

time he witnessed social media’s role 

in providing information, 

both 

during the storm 

and the long haul 

after. 

Moments 

from the day that 

have stayed with 

Johnson: listening 

to Gov. Peter Shumlin announce a stormrelated 

death, the closing of the Main 

Street bridge where the Whetstone meets 

the Connecticut River and wondering how 

people would manage without it, and covering 

circumstances at the Vernon Hydro 

Dam as items like propane tanks floated 

toward the structure. 

“You don’t think these things happen, 

but they do,” he said. 

Johnson said that he has become skilled 

at building journalistic boundaries and 

de-stressing. 

Still, Irene’s enormity brought home the 

need for taking extra care of himself. 

“We in this profession have to fight off 

what some in the community call ‘Irene fatigue,’” 

Johnson said. 

Some community members still live 

with unresolved situations created by the 

storm, he said. “We can’t ignore that.” 

Johnson was touched by the number 

of people who checked on him during the 

storm, some of whom brought him food. 

“We have a community that cares,” he 

said. “We all just put one foot in front of 

the other and get through.” 

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andolph t. h olhU t/ t he co MMonS 

One year later, 

people are still 

getting their lives 

back on track 

after the 

disruption 

from Irene — 

and, for many, 

the memories 

resonate 

emotionally. But 

help and resources 

are still available. 

Still in need 

By a llison t eague 

Response to Tropical Storm Irene was 

immediate. People who needed food, clothing, 

and a temporary place to stay could 

get help through FEMA recovery centers. 

Volunteers throughout the state signed 

up to muck out basements, clear debris 

from lawns and fields, feed and clothe 

those left without resources. Neighbor 

helped neighbor, and “Vermont Strong” was born. 

But a year later, there are still people who are waiting to see if 

they can move back into their homes or have to start over, either 

because of issues with their insurance coverage or because the 

damage to their property still needs to be assessed. 

Other people did not think they needed help but have since discovered 

issues with mold, septic systems, wells, or foundations 

that were not immediately apparent until months later. 

And with the one-year anniversary of the devastating flooding, 

emotional triggers are inevitable. 

Early this year, nine Long Term Recovery Committees (LTRCs) 

were established in the areas of the state most affected by Irene 

to help address what Vermonters still need after FEMA and other 

sources of recovery assistance have been exhausted. 

Rev. Sandy Daly, chairwoman of the Southeastern Vermont 

Long Term Recovery Committee (SVTLTRC), said that, in typical 

Vermont fashion, some people have been too proud or independent 

to ask for help. 

But those people might now be realizing that there is help available, 

and that they really do need it. 

“We’re still hearing from people that their neighbor thought 

they’d missed the boat,” Daly said. 

“We’re discovering people who hadn’t applied for FEMA, but 

anyone can come to us. They do not have to have applied to or been 

vetted by FEMA,” she said. “People can still call 2-1-1, and we will 

start a case file for them, and see what we can do to help them.” 

One of the hardest hit counties in the state, with nearly 1,500 

cases listed for individuals and families needing assistance last 

November, FEMA-funded disaster case managers are still handling 

just over 200 cases in Windham County, according to Daly. 

FEMA awarded the state Agency of Human Services a Disaster 

Case Management Grant, which provides $2.4 million over the 

next two years to continue funding these disaster case managers 

to support individuals and families, in concert with the LTRCs. 

Through phone banks, mailings, and door-knocking campaigns, 

LTRCs have reached out to all Vermonters in southeastern Vermont 

who registered with FEMA following Irene and the floods from 

spring 2011. The LTRCs work with FEMA-funded case managers 

in developing individual recovery plans for survivors. 

Today, “most of the easy issues [like food, clothing, replacing a 

furnace, refrigerator, or freezer for instance] have been resolved,” 

Daly explained. “Projects with more than one aspect to them, those 

waiting for funding or a benefactor,” are still being sorted out as 

to “who can do whatever it is that is needed.” 

“[Some cases] are so complex, we are still trying to figure out 

which issue should be addressed first,” Daly said. 

“In the last month, through a Department of Labor grant, we 

have been able to hire a construction manager who can go out with 

case workers and do an assessment of appraisals,” she explained. 

“The construction manager can figure out what someone needs, 

or work with volunteers or a local contractor who might be willing 

to give a reduced cost to whatever job or materials that are 

needed,” Daly said. 

“It’s done on a case by case situation,” she continued. “When 

our construction manager goes to a site, he will think: Who is near 

here? Who might want to have the additional benefit of having 

neighbors who will give of their time to help with recovery and 

perhaps see it as a bit of a business boost as well?” 

Almost a year after Tropical Storm Irene, “It’s not a fast-moving 

process,” she said. 

“The case worker develops a plan that the committee then goes 

over, then tries to develop resources in the surrounding communities 

to support this plan,” Daly explained. “We try to apply to 

different [funding sources]. Then there is coordinating volunteers 

with people with skills to do the work.” 

For those still waiting, this process can be very frustrating. 

But Daly describes one elderly gentleman who thought he had 

been forgotten when a volunteer team showed up at his house last 

week to start on the work he just could not do himself. 

“He was an older man, and he figured he was forgotten but 

here he is seeing this group of folks come and rip out the moldy 

sheetrock and clear away some debris. Seeing them do some things 

[made] visible movement for him,” Daly said. “It was extremely 

moving seeing him so emotionally grateful.” 

A group of five skilled volunteers came from the New 

Goshenhoppen United Church of Christ in East Greenville, Pa. 

Daly said that seeing them at work, “feeling really good and happy 

to be there and lend their hands,” made the long months of recovery 

from Irene fall away. 

“It can be a roller coaster ride. When burnout occurs is when 

[one feels] frustration that it’s going so slowly — knowing there 

are people whose lives are completely changed and waiting for 

something to give them hope, waiting for restoration,” she said. 

“Burnout comes from having to go through processes and turn 

over every leaf to see if there is some way to resolve each issue.” 

“You get rejuvenated when you see this kind of support and the 

gratitude someone has that we haven’t forgotten them, and that 

they are getting the help they need,” Daly explained. 


Individuals 

If you were affected by Irene and still need help 

long-Term Recovery Committees 

(lTRCs): The first place to learn about 

what assistance is available to meet your 

individual unmet needs is your Long Term 

Recovery Committees. 

Nine such groups have been established 

across the state to coordinate services 

and resources to address the needs 

of flood-affected individuals and families. 

The committees are made up of local 

voluntary agencies, faith and communitybased 

organizations, local government, 

and members of the private sector. 

According to Sandy Daly of the 

Southeastern VT Irene LTRC (www.windhamstatus.org), 

“Our mission is to provide 

coordinated management of the 

long-term disaster recovery in Windham 

County, assisting individuals without 

adequate resources for unmet needs as 

a result of Tropical Storm Irene and advocating 

for ongoing preparedness in cooperation 

with governmental and voluntary 

agencies active in disaster.” 

For assistance with the emotional 

consequences of Tropical Storm Irene, 

contact Starting over Strong Vermont 

(855-767-8800, www.startingoverstrongvermont.org). 

For more information on the SEVT 

LTRC, visit 

In southern Vermont: 

• Windham County: Southeastern VT 

Irene LTRC. 800-464-9951 x128, mwolf@ 

sevca.org. 

• Windsor, Orange, Hartford counties: 

Upper Valley Strong. 603-676-7958, uppervalleystrong@gmail.com. 

• Bennington County: Good Night Irene 

LTRC. 802-447-7515, mst.john@broc.org. 

If you are unsure which regional committee 

covers your community, dial 2-1-1 

(in Vermont; out of state, dial 1-802-652- 

4636). Vermont 2-1-1 (www.vermont211. 

org) provides information and referrals on 

a range of programs from heating assistance 

to information on local food, housing, 

and health care providers. 

The free and confidential service, 

staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a 

week, also offers an online database of 

thousands of services and organizations 

in communities across Vermont. 

Mental Health: Starting Over Strong 

(startingoverstrongvermont.org; 855-767- 

8800, toll-free) provides free, confidential 

help for individuals, communities, and organizations 

who have felt emotional consequences 

from the impacts of Tropical 

Storm Irene. 

Housing: Vermont Homeownership 

Centers (http://www.vthomeownership. 

org/centers.html (www.vthomeownership.org/centers.html); 

888-698-8466) 

provide housing, counseling, and lowinterest 

loans for repairs to help Vermont 

homeowners remain in their homes. 

Their staff can help negotiate with lenders, 

deal with insurance issues, submit 

FEMA and Small Business Administration 

appeals, estimate repair costs, find contractors, 

pursue mitigation grants and 

buyouts, and make low-interest loans 

for home repairs. 

For homeowners hoping to purchase 

again after Tropical Storm Irene, your 

Homeownership Center can help find 

a loan that fits your specific situation. 

The REALTORS Relief Foundation (www. 

vtrealtor.com/rrf/ (www.vtrealtor.com/ 

rrf); 877-229-0523) provides up to $1,500 

per applicant toward monthly mortgage 

expense for the primary residence damaged 

by Tropical Storm Irene or toward 

rental cost of temporary shelter due to 

displacement from the primary residence 

resulting from the storms. 

If your mobile home was damaged as 

a result of Tropical Storm Irene or the 

flooding that occurred in the spring of 

2011 and is uninhabitable or has been destroyed, 

contact the Vermont Department 

of Economic, Housing and Community 

Development (802-828-3749) for a review 

by Vermont’s Irene Recovery Office 

to ensure that you receive the maximum 

amount of FEMA assistance for which you 

are eligible. 

Mobile homes that are vacant and 

can’t be reoccupied may be inspected 

for condemnation. If necessary, a Letter 

of Condemnation could be issued for your 

destroyed or uninhabitable mobile home. 

Home Heating Assistance: Crisis Fuel 

Assistance can help you with a heating 

crisis during the winter months (e.g., you 

are out of fuel or very close to running out 

of fuel and have no money to buy more). 

One must apply in person at your local 

Community Action Agency (in Windham 

and Windsor counties, SEVCA, 91 Buck 

Drive, Westminster). 

Please call the agency first (802-722- 

4575 or 800-464-9951), so staff can tell 

you what documents and information 

you will need to bring. 

Health Care: Green Mountain Care 

Screening (greenmountaincare.vermont. 

gov; 800-250-8427) assists Vermonters 

who are not covered by health insurance. 

Food Assistance: The Vermont Food 

Bank (vtfoodbank.org, 800-585-2265) 

provides free, quality food through its 

statewide network of food shelves, meals 

sites, senior centers, shelters, and afterschool 

programs. 

Insurance Claims and Banking 

Issues: The Vermont Department of 

Banking, Insurance, Securities & Health 

Administration assists individuals with 

problems encountered with their insurance 

claims. Contact Brenda Clark, 

Consumer Services Administrator (802- 

828-4886 or 800-964-1784; brenda.clark@ 

state.vt.us). 

legal Assistance: Vermont Legal Aid 

(www.vtlegalaid.org, 800-747-5022) provides 

information, advice, and free civil 

legal services in the areas of health care, 

housing, education, family law, benefits, 

and consumer law to Vermonters who 

are low-income, elderly, or disabled. 

Its staff serves Vermont through six regional 

offices. 

Tax Relief and Preparation: The IRS 

can postpone certain deadlines for taxpayers 

who reside or have a business in 

the disaster area. The federal tax code 

provides a broad package of benefits that 

may be used by anyone who is affected by 

a federally declared disaster. Call the IRS 

Disaster Hotline at 866-562-5227. 

The Vermont Society of Certified Public 

Accountants offers free or reduced-fee 

tax preparation and consulting services 

to flood victims. Contact Carolyn Stevens 

(cstevens@trans-video.net, 802-485-6448) 

Contractors: Home Builders and 

Remodelers Association of Southern 

Vermont (cvthomebuilders.com, 802-773- 

0672) can make referrals. 

Free Financial Planning: The 

Northern New England Chapter of the 

Financial Planning Association will provide 

free, no-strings-attached financial 

planning to those affected by Tropical 

Storm Irene. Call 888-562-8784. 

National Flood Insurance Program: 

Homeowners in communities that participate 

in the National Flood Insurance 

Program might be eligible for federal 

funding to help pay the costs of bringing 

their property into compliance with local 

floodplain ordinances. 

Windham County municipalities 

in the National Flood Insurance 

Program: Bellows Falls, Brattleboro, 

Dover, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney, 

Rockingham and Saxtons River, 

Townshend, Wardsboro, Westminster 

and Westminster Village, Wilmington, 

Windham. 

Not in the program: Athens. 

Home Sharing: Home Share Now 

(www.homesharenow.org) is applying 

eight years of matching people with 

homes to assist those Vermonters who 

find themselves in need of housing after 

Tropical Storm Irene. As a home sharing 

organization, Home Share Now understands 

the multitude of factors with regard 

to good housing matches to keep 

in mind as well as the important safety 

considerations. Enrollment with Home 

Share Now is free for Irene victims. As of 

May 2012, Home Share Now has counseled 

more than 70 people affected by 

the flooding or looking for a way to help. 

For Irene-specific information: Ry 

Parcell, program manager (802-479-8543, 

rparcell@homesharenow.org). 

Business resources 

Community Development Block 

Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) 

Funds: The Agency of Commerce and 

Community Development’s Department 

of Economic, Housing and Community 

Development (DEHCD) will receive 

$21,660,211 from HUD in Community 

Development Block Grant Disaster 

Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds. This award is 

to address unmet housing, business, and 

infrastructure needs caused by Tropical 

Storm Irene, including up to $4.5 million 

in Windham County. 

Upon approval, expected by Sept. 6, 

DEHCD will make CDBG-Disaster Recovery 

applications available. DEHCD staff will be 

available to provide technical and application 

assistance. 

Information: accd.vermont.gov, 

802-828-5204. 

Business loans: The Direct Loan 

Program of the Vermont Economic 

Development Authority (www.veda.org; 

802-828-5627) offers grant funding and 

loans to qualifying business. VEDA’s Small 

Business Loan Program assists businesses 

that might not qualify for conventional 

financing. 

Community Capital (www.cvcapital. 

org, 802-479-0167) offers small-business 

loans from $1,000 to $50,000 and revolving 

lines of credit up to $25,000 for 

short-term working capital for seasonal 

businesses for up to 12 months. 

The Small Business Loan Program of 

the Vermont Community Loan Fund (www. 

investinvermont.org, 802-223-1448) is 

aimed at businesses that provide benefits 

to low-to-moderate-income Vermonters 

through livable-wage jobs and revitalized 

communities. 

The Vermont Small Business 

Administration (www.sba.gov; 802-828- 

4422) offers information on small business 

loans, grants, bonds and other financial 

assistance. SBA loans are done through 

a local lender and VEDA. 

Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund (www. 

vsjf.org, 802-828-1260) uses early-stage 

grant funding, technical assistance, and 

loans to catalyze and accelerate the development 

of markets for sustainably 

produced goods and services. 

USDA Rural Development Business 

and Cooperative Programs (www.rurdev. 

usda.gov/vt/ (www.rurdev.usda.gov/vt), 

802-828-6076) offer numerous opportunities 

to build competitive rural business 

and cooperatives that can prosper in the 

global marketplace. These programs provide 

financial and technical assistance to 

businesses, cooperatives, and communities. 

Programs include loan guarantees of 

bank loans and a variety of competitive 

grants. Check the website for detailed 

information. USDA Rural Development 

has three offices in Vermont, including 

one in Brattleboro. 

Vermont Small Business Development 

Center (www.vtsbdc.org), provides free, 

confidential business advice and low-cost 

training services to all small businesses 

and new ventures in Vermont. 

The office at 76 Cotton Mill Hill, C-1, in 

Brattleboro serves Windham and Windsor 

counties: 802-257-7731. 

The Micro Business Development 

Program of the Vermont Community 

Action Agencies (www.vermontmicrobusiness.org) 

provides technical assistance 

and training to low-to-moderate-income 

Vermonters planning to start or expand a 

small business. 

In Windham and Windsor counties, the 

program is located at SEVCA (802-722- 

4575 or 800-464-9951). 

Vermont Women’s Business Center 

(www.vwbc.org, 802-479-9813 or 877- 

524-1998) provides assistance to women 

with business training, assistance, and 

support. 

The Vermont Irene Flood Relief Fund 

(www.vtirenefund.org/get-help/ (www. 

vtirenefund.org/get-help), 802-552-3449) 

offers business grants of up to $5,000 

that are awarded on a revolving basis 

as contributions come in and as need is 

demonstrated. Priority is given to businesses 

that have the greatest need, have 

a positive impact on the local community 

and would be able to reopen or be financially 

sustainable as a result of the grant. 

Adapted and updated from lists at 

vtstrong.vermont.gov. 

Daly said that the “People at the table 

with the LTRC system don’t rely only the 

funding that has been donated locally but 

also utilize state funds.” She said the state 

disaster relief fund “has been very well administered 

and very available even though 

there are limits, like if somebody needs a 

whole house rebuilt.” 

She said there are “still people who 

are waiting for buyouts, waiting to know 

whether land swept away can be restored 

or is a lost cause.” 

For people who have lost their whole 

house, “there are government buyout programs,” 

Daly said. “I believe there have been 

three phases, or rounds, of buyouts.” 

“An individual town would make application 

on behalf of Jane Doe, and she may be 

still waiting to hear back,” said Daly, calling 

the red tape one of “just a number of steps 

for a lot of homeowners.” 

“A lot of mobile homes were damaged. 

In some areas where a mobile home park 

was, it’s basically not restorable,” she said. 

“Some of these people who do not have a 

lot of access are trying to figure out what 

their options are.” 

“In some instances, we are able to provide, 

with one of our partnering organizations, 

a temporary mobile home or help 

them find low-income housing in an apartment 

or rental space,” Daly said. 

Speaking a few days before the first anniversary 

of the storm, Daly said, “I do not 

believe there is anyone who is homeless 

as a result of losing their home in Irene.” 

Daly noted that since some of these 

people had the pre-existing condition of 

already living below the poverty line when 

Irene hit, some of her agency’s work is to 

help the individuals and families reestablish 

themselves someplace else. 

“These [situations] aren’t simply solved,” 

she said. 

Fo r so M any, the problems from 

Irene go well beyond the bricks and mortar. 

photo by Pearse Pinch, Marlboro College class of 2014 

Marlboro College 

salutes the intrepid spirit of the 

citizens of Vermont in the wake of 

Tropical Storm Irene. 

www.marlboro.edu 

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StartingoV erStrongV t. co M 

Kids collaborate on a Storming Superhero design, creating a character imbued 

with “superpowers to fight all kinds of natural disasters.” 

Robin White, a crisis counselor in southern 

Vermont for Starting over Strong 

Vermont, a Washington County-based 

mental-health program that covers the 

whole state, noted that people experience 

being traumatized in different ways. 

The grant that funds the program runs 

from October to October, and “the last six 

weeks we’re spending going door to door, 

canvassing and asking if everyone is doing 

okay,” White said. 

“We are a service that promotes recovery 

and resilience in anyone impacted by the 

storm, and offer short-term, one-on-one 

sessions, as well as educational and emotional 

support groups,” she added. 

With some 100 people on the referral 

list, “the goal of our agency is to make sure 

we’ve made some kind of contact with every 

person on that list, whether by phone call 

or face to face contact,” White said. 

“Some people want to forget it and 

move on,” she added. “And others have 

bad dreams, experience anxiety and 

depression.” 

And the first anniversary of the trauma? 

“It’s a trigger,” White said — a strong emotional, 

and quite natural, response set off 

by words or images that remind one of a 

traumatic event. 

“A lot of my job is just witnessing and acknowledging 

that they are pulling together 

in resilience — or feeling overwhelmed,” she 

said. “It’s my job to let them know that however 

they are doing it is just right for them.” 

“I can introduce techniques to help them 

get through, like breathing or just being in 

the present moment. Or setting aside a specific 

time to think about some worrisome 

thought that is troubling them,” she said. 

“A person can rebuild a house, but if 

a person is emotionally traumatized, it’s 

going to take time,” she said. “My job is to 

normalize their process.” 

White said she has been helping three 

different towns mark the anniversary in 

three very distinct ways, each of which 

helps people to deal with emotions that the 

memories are already starting to bring up. 

“Wilmington is doing two things. On 

the Sunday before the anniversary, they 

are having a big community pot luck with 

kids’ activities,” she said. 

At kids’ camps and emergency preparedness 

talks, she had young people create a 

Storming Superhero, instructing the kids 

to give their heroes “superpowers to fight 

all kinds of natural disasters.” 

“I’ve got about 50 of those and they are 

going to be on display that day,” White said. 

“The gist of it is just getting people together 

to share a meal in the same way they 

came together when the storm happened 

— neighbors helping neighbors.” 

“There will be a slide show, then a ‘Good 

night, Irene’ song that has been especially 

written that will be sung. It’s free and not 

political,” White said. 

On Tuesday, the town wanted a very solemn, 

nondenominational, half hour dusk 

service right in the river bend park on the 

river, with bagpipes. 

“They lost a life in Wilmington, so it’s 

not a celebration but a service of remembrance,” 

she said. 

Ivana Taseva, 20, a worker at Mount 

Snow, drowned after she was swept away 

by the Deerfield River. 

White said she would be giving out 

flowers that people can throw in the river, 

and she will be there for emotional support 

as well. 

Two other towns are marking the occasion 

in completely different ways: one with 

story circles, and the other with a loud, 

noisy, and fun parade and barbeque to 

help raise money for the fire department, 

which “helped so many people during the 

storm,” White said. 

White said that it’s not unusual for 

delayed emotional reaction to a trauma like 

the Tropical Storm Irene flooding. 

“We want people to know that what they 

are experiencing are real and typical natural 

reactions to a natural disaster,” White 

explained. 

“At the very beginning when it happened, 

there was such an outpouring of support 

and gratitude that it was hard to drop 

down into grief and sadness — they were 

so grateful to be alive,” she said. 

“Then, as their lives got back to normal 

and they realized more fully how they were 

impacted, they might have become disillusioned 

and alone,” she said. 

“We want them to know that there is 

still support.” 

Allison Teague is a freelance writer and 

Commons correspondent based in Westminster. 

Waves in the Woods 

River, it was risin’, footing lost in the storm. 

Strange, what matters when flood sweeps over the corn. 

Fields disappearing; house might follow suit. 

What’s left to harvest? Stones where there once was fruit. 

Head for the hills, darling, river’s at our door. 

Waves in the wood. You hear them roar? 

That was the stream we waded yesterday. 

Kissed on the rocks. Takes my breath away… 

Friends ’n’ strangers gather tryin’ to fix the harm. 

It’s a funny thing to say, “This is the best place to lose your farm.” 

Did you catch on YouTube: covered bridge went down? 

Horse-and-rider brave the water to get medicine to town. 

They call it a hundred, a hundred-year storm. 

Did we turn the key; set the ocean to warm, 

tornado on spin, the heartland on dry? 

Tricky to prove but it’s hard to deny. 

Future is a gamble. Change is in the air. 

Dance among the shambles, dream beyond despair. 

In mother tongues I can’t pronounce, 

our children’s song resounds. 

Plant a tree or stanza deep in common ground. 

Irene Irony: goddess of peace— 

in hours you tore through our Town. 

Sweet Pond, drawn down to muck, eerily refills. 

Green River rolls out of her bed. Swallows the road. 

Laps at the covered bridge. 

Snap! goes the snowmobile bridge. 

A tangle of wires dangles. 

Look, here come hands across the water. 

Firefighter a guy writhing in the rapids. 

Here come the Bells, old timers, with a tractor and blade. 

Guilford singer/songweriter Patty Carpenter (right) 

and Guilford poet Verandah Porche premiered this 

poem/song on Sept. 24, 2011, as part of 100,000 Poets 

for Change, a worldwide event described as the largest 

worldwide poetry reading in history. 

Here come the neighbors maybe strangers 

with pickaxes and shovels. 

While the river dozes licking her chops 

they bond over ruins, cementing friendship, 

smoothing common ground to dance on. 

Head for the hills, darling. Stay safe. 

Creeks without names swell into torrents 

irrational exuberance boulders roll out of bed 

there goes the farm covered bridge stumbles 

like an elephant shot 

no stopping hope hope on horseback 

neighbors strangers a rake a backhoe 

throw a pot luck tell a fortune 

plant a stanza…….. 

dance among the shambles 

dance on common ground 


a 

a 

JOuRNAlIST, 

HuRRICANE, 

HOMETOWN 

a 

Where is the buffer when you wonder if the people you care 

about are okay in the town that you loved and hated and called 

home for the first 13 years of your life? For this reporter, covering 

Tropical Storm Irene blurs the professional with the personal. 

By o lga p eters 

I 

d o n’t W ant to be a journalist today, Aug. 29, 2011. 

The day dawns bright and clear, just the opposite of its evil older sibling, Aug. 28. 

The view around the house that I share with my stepfather and step-uncle, 

safe on a hill, looks soggy but intact. 

Beyond this 360-degree vista is the eerie silence of the unknown. 

The day after Irene, I am worried about my family. I don’t think road crews 

need one more car in their way. 

Also, I don’t want to ask the stupid questions. 

“How are you?” is rude when someone is sobbing by an empty cellar hole on the banks 

of a flood-torn river. 

Talk to those who are all right because they’re the ones all right to talk, I bargain with myself. 

For them, someday Irene might evolve into a funny “remember-the-time?” story. 

Our phone and power cut out during the storm. I listen to updates from WTSA’s Tim 

Johnson in Brattleboro over the battery-powered radio. A spokeswoman for CVPS tells 

Wilmington during the throes of Tropical Storm Irene. 

32 IRENE: A Look Back, a Look Ahead IRENE: A Look Back, a Look Ahead 33 

John p ilcher/t he WilM ington i nn

olga peterS/the coMMonS 

The water had receded, but the evidence was still visible on buildings in Wilmington the next afternoon. 

Tim that the power company is trying to 

get electricity restored quickly but knows 

there were homes without power that they 

didn’t know about. 

Call us, she says. 

Right. 

We kneW Irene was coming. 

Whitingham has its own historical penchant 

for losing power every time a squirrel 

farts. We keep an electricity-free stash: 

battery-powered radio, flashlights, batterypowered 

clocks, and lots of extra batteries, 

candles, and matches. 

Those preparations aside, Irene didn’t 

worry me. Windham County had worn 

me thin, and I viewed the storm as hype 

and drama. The previous five months, I 

had worked on covering the Brooks House 

fire, the Entergy lawsuit, the execution of 

a young woman in Dummerston by drug 

dealers, and an employee shooting at the 

Brattleboro Food Co-op. 

These stories had given my emotional 

skin rug burn. My drama threshold was 

well and truly breached. 

A journalist stands witness, dissecting 

and communicating “the first draft of history,” 

as the saying goes. Holding a notebook 

and assuming a questioning attitude 

in the midst of chaos builds a zen-like detachment 

that had routinely kept this journalist 

out of history’s riptide. 

Still, witnessing and zen-like detachment 

require substantial energy and discipline. 

Even notebooks and zen wear thin. 

So, when Vermont prepped for what was 

still Hurricane Irene, I took measures. I 

made sure we had water and canned foods 

to carry us through a few days without electricity. 

I removed the patio furniture from 

the deck of the house to guard against embarrassment. 

(“Yes, Mr. and Ms. Insurance 

Company, the hurricane-force winds blew 

our patio furniture through my bedroom 

window.”) 

But beyond that? Meh. 

At the storM ’s height, Dad, 

Uncle Chuck, and I ran down to the cellar. 

We expected the basement to flood. A 

few inches of water covered the floor. The 

floor drains gurgled and whooshed. Still, 

they managed. 

Dad opened the basement door. 

His tall, beanpole frame was silhouetted 

against a murky light where sky, treeline, 

and ground blended behind a screen of pelting 

rain. Uncle Chuck stood next to Dad, 

shorter and slouched after his latest round 

of chemo pills. 

Water was everywhere. A couple of inches 

rushed down our driveway. It pounded the 

roof. Whipped at the side of the house. 

Hammered the windows. 

The air hung on our skin like wet laundry. 

Standing in the basement door, it felt as if 

we lived in a small plastic house at the bottom 

of an endless fish tank. Any minute an 

angel fish followed by a plastic scuba diver 

would swim past. 

I don’t care what god or goddess you do or 

do not pray to: in this physical world, Mama 

Nature is boss. She brought us into this world, 

and she can take us out. 

Dad called from upstairs. The ceiling 

was falling. 

The wind blew the cap off the vent in the 

bathroom. Ceiling panels sagged toward 

the tub. I hunted for extra towels. Dad and 

Uncle Chuck scuttled back to the cellar. 

They re-emerged with a two-by-four and a 

green pickle bucket. They wedged the items 

between the shower stall and ceiling. This 

bit of Yankee Ingenuity held the saturated 

ceiling through the storm. 

My editor calls. It’s Monday. We 

need Tropical Storm Irene coverage for 

Wednesday’s paper. 

I explain that I’m not sure what condition 

the area is in, or if I can drive anywhere. 

I had heard that Jacksonville Village had 

been evacuated, so I don’t know if that part 

of town is accessible. I have no idea what 

shape Wilmington, Halifax, or Dover are in. 

Some reports dripped in Monday over 

the Boston television station WBZ. New 

England was in turmoil, the anchors said 

gleefully. For some journalists, breaking news 

is an aphrodisiac. But that’s fairly useless information 

for anyone in Southern Vermont 

wondering about driving from point A to 

point B. 

WTSA and a crackly VPR are more 

helpful: Yes, the state was in turmoil, but 

Vermonters help Vermonters. 

Also, they report the roads that are 

closed in some places: Route 9, which runs 

east/west and connects Brattleboro to 

Bennington; Route 100, the main north/ 

south connector for the small towns in 

the center of the state; and Hatch School 

Road that becomes the Green River then 

Brattleboro — There’s Only One, 

and It’s Better Than Ever! 

Downtown was hit hard by Tropical Storm Irene, like many others 

around the state. A year later, we’ve bounced back beautifully and 

welcome all who choose to “keep it here”. 

SHOP LOCAL AND SUPPORT THE LOCAL ECONOMY 

C&S wholesale 

grocers 

Andrea Livermore, Executive Director, 

Building a Better Brattleboro 

River Garden, 157 Main Street, Brattleboro 

802-257-4886, babb@sover.net 

www.brattleboro.com 

C&S wholesale 

grocers 

Select the Best 

At C&S, our mission 

is to consistently 

deliver the very best 

service and value to 

our customers. 

www.cswg.com 


Hinesburg Road, which connects parts 

of Whitingham, Halifax, and Marlboro to 

Brattleboro. 

Route 8A which runs from Route 2, a 

main thoroughfare in Massachusetts, to 

Route 112 in Jacksonville is also closed in 

places. 

Route 112, which connects Jacksonville to 

Route 100 and Route 2, was more accessible 

but not advisable. 

Basically, the five major routes exiting 

Whitingham were closed or considered 

risky. 

Before getting to work, I grab extra 

clothes: a smart move since, due to road 

conditions, I would end up staying with 

friends in Greenfield, Mass, and Keene, 

N.H. for the next month. 

I drive slowly over our muddy driveway 

and turn right toward Jacksonville Village. 

Suck it up, kid. 

J acksonville V illage. 

Floodwaters from the North River had 

buckled sidewalks, surrounded buildings, 

eaten away river banks, and tossed hunks 

of concrete like styrofoam. 

A paramedic directs drivers along the 

passable remains of Route 112. 

He hasn’t slept in 36 hours, he says. 

A few vehicles pass. The drivers lean out 

their windows holding cameras and video 

recorders. 

The paramedic swears at them. “This 

place is people’s homes,” he snaps. “Not a 

sideshow.” 

They should stay home and get out of the 

way of the people helping, he said. 

I tell him I’m going to Wilmington. 

He tells me I can’t take Route 100. Go the 

Cross Road, he said. 

“They might not let you in,” he cautions. 

They? Is he a conspiracy theorist, or does he 

have inside info? 

Wilmington has been evacuated, the 

o lga p eterS / t he co MMonS 

Governor Peter Shumlin moves through Wilmington on Monday, witnessing the damage from the storm. 

downtown closed off, they called the 

National Guard, you’ll have to ask permission 

to go to the shelter, he tells me. 

He’s got to be joking. 

The drive to Wilmington is rocky. 

Sink holes and chewed roads slow the few 

travelers to a crawl. 

Officers standing guard by a flooded 

Wahoo’s restaurant allow entrance. They 

direct me to the High School, now general 

emergency headquarters and Red Cross 

shelter. I arrive as town officials are walking 

with Governor Peter Shumlin, U.S. Senator 

Patrick Leahy, and Vermont Adjutant 

General Michael Dubie. 

Such a high-powered trio is a rare sight 

in these parts. 

Media — print, radio, and broadcast — 

swirl around the cluster. 

I fold into the crowd, falling into step 

with Susan Haughwout, town clerk and 

Selectboard member. 

She looks shaky, pale. 

“How are you?” I ask. 

Crap. 

She tells me, the town is a mess. 

“Mess?” That’s a big and unspecific word. 

The police, fire, and town clerk’s offices 

are all “offline.” Everyone is working to set 

up an alternative, Susie whispers. 

Shumlin. Leahy. Talk to town manager. How 

did they get here? Helicopter — right. 

Susie describes attempting to save town 

records as the rising floodwaters swamped 

the bridge and filled the town offices. She 

lost her car to the waters. “We hot-footed 

it out of there,” she says. 

They think a young woman has died, 

Susie says. 

“I’m glad you’re all okay,” I respond. 

Our small bundle of bloodshot eyes, dirty 

shoes, gaping mouths, and weariness descend 

the small slope to Wilmington’s main 

intersection. 

Bloody f—ing hell. 

Doors and windows of the densely 

packed downtown have exploded outwards, 

Rescue EMTs, both 

volunteer and paid staff, 

are the heart and soul of 

the agency. 

With a tireless dedication 

to improving the quality 

of life in our community, 

each provider brings a 

unique background and 

perspective to the job. 

Ready to Serve 

24/7/365 

541 Canal Street 


www.rescueinc.org Rachel Laliberte, Grafton 

photo credit: David Shaw 

Discount Foods 

Remembering Irene... 

...and working together as a community! 

77 Flat Street, Brattleboro, VT • M-S 8:30am-7pm Sun 10am-7pm 


Yarn amid the debris 

in Wilmington. 

the buildings’ innards strewn across the 

sidewalk. 

Heavy equipment and National Guard 

vehicles pull trees and debris from Route 

9. Despite the vehicles’ grunts and wheezing, 

the downtown lies still under a somber 

layer of sand. 

Radio has sound. News stations have 

images. I have words. 

Today, words feel tiny. 

Yards of yarn, washed from a store on the 

northern edge of the intersection, tangle 

like dirty and colorful tentacles around the 

Bank Park pergola. 

Trees lie like discarded toothpicks across 

the Route 9 bridge and poke at awkward 

angles from the windows of the Parmalee 

& Howe building. A foggy watermark stains 

the Manyu’s Boutique bay window. 

That watermark — it looks higher than the 

1938 flood. 

Shumlin, Dubie, and Leahy shake hands 

with people, asking them, “What do you 

need?” 


Debris hangs from the trees in Wilmington. 

The people in the tired group cling to the 

officials’ words. 

“We need everything,” says Meg Streeter, 

balancing a load of binders in her arms. 

Headline? 

The fire chief tells Shumlin the fire, police, 

and public works departments are 


The Deerfield River cut new paths through the community. 

S parkle photography 

“working their rear ends off.” 

Jezum crowmers, where do you start? 

“Devastating,” says Shumlin. Looking at 

Dot’s Restaurant, he talks about how much 

he like its award-winning chili. 

Why is Meg carrying those binders? 

A Selectboard member and local real 

estate agent, Streeter shakes hands with 

Leahy. She’s on double duty as a town official 

and as a business owner whose downtown 

office was sucker-punched during 

the flood. 

Leahy, if you don’t stop glowering at me like 

that, I’ll stop calling you “Saint Patrick” and 

start calling you “Saint Sourpuss.” 

“You can’t go anywhere in Vermont,” 

someone says behind me. 

Lisa Sullivan, who owns a now very 

flooded bookstore, cries. Shumlin hugs her. 

No emotions. Stay neutral. 

“Tears at your heart,” says Shumlin. Or 

maybe it’s Leahy. 

“We will rebuild, Vermonters — don’t 

give up.” This is Shumlin speaking. 

Lede for my story? Great words. Now what? 

Shumlin says he’s spoken to President 

Obama. He’s told the President that 

Vermont will need financial help — and fast. 


Possible better lede. 

The entire downtown, Wilmington’s primary 

business district, has been hit. Dot’s 

will probably be condemned. The Anchor 

Restaurant and Red Mill are full of mud. 

What about the Vermont House, my stepdad’s 

old business? I can see it standing. But 

was it damaged? 

Anne Coleman, an artist, tells Shumlin 

how the floodwaters picked up her gallery 

and swept the entire building downstream. 

“Half my life of work is just gone,” she 

tells me. 

Oh. Please don’t cry. Damn. OK, say something 

comforting. 

“[The flood] chased us out of the fire station,” 

said the fire chief. 

That’s awkward. 

Where is the buffer when it’s your 

hometown? 

Where is the buffer when the elderly 

neighbor had to speed through rising waters 

from the home she has lived in since 

childhood? 

Where is the buffer when you stand in 

the middle of a silent intersection within 

sight of your stepfather’s old inn, or the 

store where Lilias McBean Hart gave rude 

travelers backhanded complements as you 

laughed under your breath while dusting 

artisan glassware? 

Where is the buffer when you wonder if 

the people you care about are okay in the 

town that you loved and hated and called 

home for the first 13 years of your life? 

Answer? 

Go ahead. Erect the best buffer you 

can. Think analytically. Ask probing 

questions. Think about what facts and 

figures your readers will need to understand 

a world that has changed 180 

degrees in 24 hours. 

Snap a front-page worthy photo of a 

governor and senator walking a deserted 

street. Listen intently to the sobbing business 

owner who has “lost everything.” Nod. 

Ask another question. Scribble in your 

notebook. 

But realize: When you stand in that spot, 

your fears, wonder, curiosity, and numbness 

will all seep around your notebook. 

And you will stand in the middle of this 

silent intersection with your heart racing, 

thinking of inappropriate jokes to lighten 

your mood, trying to ignore that your fingers 

ache. 

Until you remember the first rule of journalism: 

This is not about me. 

Irene has given M e new eyes. 

Today, I can discern the difference between 

a plastic bag blown into a tree by a gust of 

wind and one caught on a stray branch 

during Irene’s floods. I can differentiate 

between debris flatted by floodwaters and 

those tossed by passing motorists. 

Riverbanks — armored with stones and 

shiny guardrails marking treeless banks 

— stand stark against what’s left of the 

pre-Irene landmarks. Uneven patches of 

asphalt beneath my car wheels bump like 

Braille telling the story: Irene came, Irene 

saw, Irene devoured. 

Uncle Chuck died of cancer on June 

30. I moved out of my stepdad’s house. 

Wilmington is still rebuilding. The town 

offices have moved back downtown. 

No one is fooled and everyone admits, 

yes, the downtown could flood again. The 

economy is still hard, but that’s nothing 

new. 

The green pickle bucket and two-by-fours 

still prop up Dad’s bathroom ceiling. 

Eventually, we’ll all adjust to this new 

normal. 

Olga Peters works as staff reporter for The 

Commons. 

Watermarks 

Walking in Brattleboro, we see signs of 

a new normalcy and reminders that we 

were eyewitnesses to our own history 

By h arral h amilton 

My M orning routine is simple. I make my way 

downtown to patronize one of Brattleboro’s many fine coffee 

shops, have a morning cup, chat with the familiars for 

a bit, and then set upon on a long walk. 

The length, time, and even the destination is not defined. 

And although the path is never the same, I find myself on 

common streets. I look at the buildings and am transported 

to another time I’d read about or seen in a picture. 

I imagine the masons who erected these brick buildings on their wooden scaffolding, 

the folks who walked these streets in far different fashions, on land that had yet to be 

shaped by man and nature. 

It seems a condition of humans to constantly relate our lives to the past. We erect 

monuments and memorials and hold celebrations of remembrance. We listen to the 

stories of our elders and pass them on generation after generation. 

We look for evidence and clues from the past in hopes that we might glean some understanding 

of our current experiences. 

But sometimes the evidence we find is not from some distant time. It’s not found in 

old photographs or folktales. It is a past we lived through. 


Such W as the case one recent 

morning as I walked down Flat Street en 

route to the newly built Brattleboro Food 

Co-op. All was normal. Adivasi had brilliant 

tapestries on display, the Transportation 

Center was active, customers were coming 

in and out of Experienced Goods and 

Dottie’s, Dunklee’s machine shop had its 

bay door open wide, and Lynde Motorsports 

was gated by more than a dozen cycles. All 

signs of a thriving Flat Street. 

What caught my attention was a line 

across the brickwork. 

Completely level, this line stretches from 

its point on the north side of the Latchis 

building and along the bottom of the Boys 

and Girls Club. It reaches across to the 

former Sanel building, the Transportation 

Center, and beyond. The line is the highwater 

mark, a stain reminding us of the 

historic flood we witnessed in the wake of 

Tropical Storm Irene. 

2011 was a trying year for Brattleboro. 

A winter that saw no limit to the amount 

of snow that fell, followed by a summer of 

destruction and tragedy. 

Even as many felt on edge and not sure 

if we could take any more, we stood along 

the banks of the Whetstone Brook watching 

the water pass under Main Street and the 

railroad and empty into the Connecticut 

River with volume and intensity that none 

of us had ever seen. 

We watched in disbelief as the waters 

rushed dangerously close to the underside 

of the bridge, carrying debris ranging from 

tree trunks to propane tanks. 

Farther up the usually calm brook, the 

waters had swelled and engulfed all of 

Flat Street. Water poured into the Latchis 

Annex building, filling the basement, including 

that of the Tap Room Restaurant 

and Adivasi. 

As the waters rose, business owners attempted 

to secure their goods but were 

quickly overwhelmed. It became a race to 

grab their most important items and flee. 

At Adivasi, the basement filled with inventory 

was now filled with muddy water 

and completely inaccessible. Merchandise 

poured out of Sam’s inventory facility just 

down the street. Unattended cars were 

pushed around like toys in a bathtub. 

As quickly as the devastation occurred 

it was recorded and posted online. 

Through iPhones, Blackberrys, and cameras, 

we learned very quickly just how serious 

a storm we were dealing with. 

News came in of Williams Street washing 

away in parts. We learned of the horrible 

conditions of the homes that lay close to 

the brook’s shore, including the the many 

mobile homes that offered little defense 

against this type and magnitude of force. 

We also learned that the situation was at 

least as serious throughout Vermont. The 

valleys where many found nestling comfort 

now served as a funnel for this water. 

A significant section of Route 30 had 

disappeared into the turgid West River 

in Jamaica, taking several houses with it. 

The collapse of a covered bridge in 

Bartonsville was caught on camera and 

posted within a few hours of the event. 

Williamsville was rendered unrecognizable 

as the Rock River changed its path and 

took several houses along with it. 

Those in Wilmington, where the 1938 

flood line has been marked on the town 

hall, saw that line submerged in more than 

6 additional inches of water. 

Similar stories continued to come in from 

all over the state. 

The following day after the waters had 

receded, the high-water mark that showed 

on the buildings reached up to 3 feet in 

some places. 

Flat Street was covered in several inches 

of an unhealthy muck of soil and sewage. 

The National Guard had arrived. The 

Guard’s presence, along with the devastation 

left in the storm’s wake, gave the feel 

of a Hollywood disaster film or a Weather 

Channel special report. 

We had seen hurricanes wreak havoc 

along the southern Atlantic coast and dissipate 

into tropical storms by the time they 

reached New England, enough of them that 

no one took it too seriously. Flat Street Brew 

Pub even had a “Dark and Stormy” drink 

special for the occasion. 

We were alerted to the approaching 

storm and had braced ourselves in the usual 

way: stock up on food, water, alternative 

light sources, no unnecessary travel, hunker 

down, and ride it out. Power outages 

we expected. Maybe the wind would knock 

over some lawn furniture, and we wouldn’t 

have to worry about watering our gardens 

for a few days. 

Those who came out to see the aftermath 

looked stunned but not mournful. It was 

more a look of determination, a question 

of what had to be done and how to do it 

with a community eager to help. 

As public works crews moved quickly to 

clean the street, dozens of volunteers arrived 

to assist in cleaning local businesses. 

Locals organized and benefits were held, 

raising thousands of dollars and assisting 

the hundreds who were displaced. 

Within a few days, Flat Street was open 

to traffic. Within a few weeks, businesses 

started up again, and in just a few months, 

nearly every shop affected or displaced by 

the flood was back in business. 

In all this, I’m reminded of the words of 

President Herbert Hoover, who said, of the 

historic flood in 1927, “I’ve seen Vermont at 

her worst and Vermonters at their best.” 

These words are as pertinent today as they 

were then as the people saw their resolve 

tested. 

It ’s B een a year since I stood 

with a couple of hundred of my neighbors 

along the banks of the Whetstone to witness 

a scene that shook us at our core, that has 

kept us a bit more vigilant, and that seemingly 

changed our DNA. 

BenJ a M in ZeM an/c reatiV e co MMonS (By- nc) licenS e 

People witness history from the top level of the Brattleboro Transportation Center. 

With every heavy rain that falls, I peek 

down to see where the water lies. I look to 

my neighbors and my community and feel 

the collective tension and great relief that 

comes from living through such an ordeal. 

And now, a year later, there is little evidence 

that this historic event took place except 

that high water mark, a bumper sticker 

and license plate campaign declaring “We 

are Vermont Strong,” and a sense of knowing 

that we were there, as an integral part 

of the history of the flood of 2011. 

Harral Hamilton divides his time between his 

hometown of Brattleboro and Brooklyn, N.Y. 

Dedicated to improving the quality of life 

for all Vermonters. 

www.vsecu.com 


Irene was the toughest storm 

that ever hit Vermont, but this 

has been the most extraordi- 

nary recovery ever executed by 

a state facing a natural disaster. 

My message on the anniver- 

sary: Only in Vermont could you 

find the spirit of community, 

caring, and determination that allowed us 

to make extraordinary progress in one year. 

Let’s not forget that we’re talking about 

three extraordinary storms last year. I think 

the lesson of Irene is that Vermont is better 

prepared to deal with a climate-change fu- 

ture. Five hundred miles of damaged roads, 

36 bridges, uncountable homes and mobile 

homes are now able to withstand more tor- 

rents of rain in short periods of time. That’s 

big stuff. 

There is a lot we have covered, but there’s 

still a lot we must do. 

We still have to commit ourselves to the 

hundreds of Vermonters still without a place 

that they can really call home, who still need 

resources to get on their feet, whose busi- 

nesses still need to fully recover. 

We have to raise money to keep rebuilding 

so Vermont is better than it was when Irene 

found us. Let’s continue to do that in the 

spirit of community that blesses Vermont. 

—Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, com- 

menting for this publication on post-Irene 

Vermont and the one-year anniversary of the cat- 

astrophic flooding. 

44 IRENE: A Look Back, a Look Ahead 


On the cover: “From My Window,” by Wilmington artist Jim McGrath, painted from 

the artist’s window during the flood on Aug. 28, 2011. Giclée prints are available 

in a limited edition through the artist: visit www.mcgrathgallery.com for details. 

Photograph on pages 2–3 by Flickr user calebjc, 

used under Creative Commons (BY-SA) license 

Photograph on pages 44–45 by Allison Teague/The Commons 

IRENE 

A Look Back, a Look Ahead 

A joint production of 

PrimeTime Concepts, Inc., publisher of SO VermOnt ArtS & LiVing • www.vtartsliving.com • 802-258-3992 

and 

Vermont Independent Media, publisher of the COmmOnS • www.commonsnews.org • 802-246-6397 

PuBlISHER: Lynn Barrett • EDITOR/DESIGNER: Jeff Potter 

DEPuTy EDITOR: Randolph T. Holhut • REPORTER: Olga Peters 

EDITORIAl VOluNTEERS: Lee Stookey, Elizabeth Julia Stoumen 

ADVERTISING: Nancy Gauthier, John Moriarty 

ADVERTISING COMPOSITION/PRODuCTION: Sarah Adam, Michael Logerfo 

ADMINISTRATIVE AND EDITORIAl SuPPORT: Mia Gannon, Richard Henke 

We were there for you then. 

We’re there for you now. 

We’ll continue to serve you. 

We’re you’re local radio station.

“We prepared for the worst so we were expecting both high winds and lots of water. 

We didn’t get the high winds but we did get tons of water, more than we can absorb. 

Take the little town where I was born, Brattleboro, Vermont. The little, teeny 

Whetstone Brook... downtown... borders the Latchis Theater, our Brattleboro Food Co-op 

and the rest. That little, teeny river as an example, a little brook really, is just a raging 

waterway. It’s eaten away at buildings that have been there for 150 years. Some of them 

probably will not survive. 

So, if you magnify this through every small community in Vermont, that’s where we 

are. We have lots of people without power. We have, obviously, road and bridge infrastructure 

challenges... We’re just simply trying to assess and get folks back on their feet. 

BrattleboroChamber.org 

But it’s a real challenge for us up in the Green Mountain State...” 

The Brattleboro Area Chamber 

of Commerce acknowledges 

with respect and admiration all 

who have worked ceaselessly, 

fearlessly and creatively over the 

past year to meet the challenge. 

We are grateful to those who 

have put together his beautiful 

record that sheds the best 

Vermont light on that darker 

August day... 

Governor Peter Shumlin, interviewed in August, 2011

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