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Brattleboro, Vermont Wednesday, November 17, 2010 • Vol. V, No. 29 • Issue #76
W ind h am C ounty ’ s A W A R D - W I N N I N G , I ndependent S ource for N ews and V iews IN THIS ISSUE
VERMONT
HOLIDAY
Traditions Activities Celebrations Gifts Faith
Supplement to
November 17, 2010
• Celebrating the light • A guilt-free Thanksgiving feast • Events listings • First Christmas in a new land
Voices Viewpoint
Shumlin won with hard work, not luck page 6 ESSAY
Vermont’s weather isn’t for wimps
Setting standards for Vermont Drumming up maple syrup
business
Industry looks at a syrup certification process — an inevitable need if farmers in the state want to remain in the marketplace, some maple producers say By Olga Peters The Commons
A
farmer collecting maple sap from wooden buckets in a snowcovered maple grove. It’s an iconic Vermont image gracing postcards, maple syrup containers, state marketing materials and even the back of the Vermont state quarter. Despite the iconography, Vermont’s maple industry has evolved and expanded in the last 40 years. First, metal sap buckets replaced wooden ones decades ago, and now food-grade tubing snaking from tree to tree has almost rendered any buckets obsolete. And in this litigious age, the development of a certification program for farmers wishing to sell their syrup wholesale threatens to render the culture of an
autonomous cottage industry to memory. The Vermont Maple Industry Council (VMIC), an association of maple packers who buy syrup from farmers and sell to consumers, is spearheading a proposed set of certification standards for farmers. Members of the Windham County Sugar Makers unveiled the standards at their annual meeting last week. No timeline exists to put the program into action, but Arnold Coombs, a seventh-generation maple farmer and a member of VMIC, said most packers wouldn’t purchase syrup from uncertified farmers within the year. Coombs said it’s not the packers’ intent to force certification, but also “not our intent to hire [quality assurance] staff.” Vermont’s maple industry contains every size of producer
A new plan to divide expenses at the Bellows Falls Opera House may lead to more performances at the historic theater
n see maple, page 2
Grace Cottage Hospital explores Life & Work expansion plan page 7
Extra! Extra!
Training tomorrow’s journalists page 9 Doggin’ around
Furry reading aide helps students page 9
Sports
By Thelma O’Brien The Commons
TOWNSHEND—From somewhere between the bottom line and the bottom of the heart, Grace Cottage Hospital has been dispensing health care in the West River Valley and beyond since 1949, when Carlos Otis, its first doctor, delivered its first baby, Aug. 8, the day after the then-12-bed hospital opened. More than six decades later, Grace Cottage is still devoted to providing family care as well as serving as a critical-access hospital — and planning for its future with a new medical building program. Despite an incalculable number of changes to health care and its delivery in that time, the hospital’s official mission statement remains: “Excellence in health care and well being, putting people first. To be the standard for
ALLISON TEAGUE/THE COMMONS
A view of the backstage rigging at the Bellows Falls Opera House, a venue that holds more potential than has been realized since the historic building was restored from 2005 to 2007, said new event coordinator Howard Ires (inset). By Allison Teague
patient care.” Today, GCH has a 19-bed inpatient hospital, employs more than 160 people, including 14 practitioners of family care, internal medicine, pediatrics, mental health, and hospice services; rehabilitation departments that provide physical, occupational and speech therapists; laboratories and a radiology departments. Services include a 24-hour emergency department and residential facilities for its full-time Rescue Inc. crew. The full-service Messenger pharmacy is across the street, and, newest of all, the Community Wellness Center, offers nearly a dozen classes, from yoga to strong bones to belly dancing. More than 7,500 individual Vermont patients were seen at GCH in fiscal 2009, according to Andrea E. Seaton, vice president for planning and development n see grace cottage, page 4
The Commons
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E L L O W S FALLS—A new policy will make the Bellows Falls Opera House more viable and more attractive to a wider range of performers and events — a goal that offers significant promise for financial return to the local economy and creative stimulus to the community, organizers say. At a recent board meeting, the Rockingham Selectboard accepted a proposal put forward by incoming Event Coordinator Howard Ires, who worked as a technical director on stage in New York theater for 20 years, to improve the way the Opera House does business. Under the new policy, the events coordinator will supply promotion, lighting, stagehands and ushers for shows
The champs
and concerts. An agreed-upon, guaranteed split of ticket sales would go to the performer. Ires said ticket sales online will soon be handled by a vendor through www.bfoperahouse.com. Under the former business structure, the theater was rented “as four walls,” meaning that an act had to provide or rent everything needed for their show, essentially paying for the privilege of performing at the Opera House. “Obviously, that’s not a very popular way to get performers and events to come to the Opera House,” Ray Massucco, of Vermont Festivals LLC, which produces Roots on the River, told the board. “Performers don’t want to pay to perform.” “Most acts will agree to a guarantee of a split of box office,” Ires explained. The policy change “does more than allow the theater to start making money,
‘Tink’ Austin remembers the days when every Brattleboro kid dreamed of soaring off Harris Hill
Page 12
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n see opera house, page 4
Homegrown daredevils
Terriers win football title; Rebels take soccer crown
Vermont Independent Media
said Interim Town Manager Francis “Dutch” Walsh. “It changes the manner in which we will be marketing, selling tickets, and booking events,” he said. “Yes, hopefully, revenue can start to be generated,” Walsh continued. “More importantly, we can stop withdrawing money from the Enterprise Fund for operations of the theater.” The theater’s cash balance has dropped “a little over $100,000 over the past five years” in the Enterprise Fund that supports the Opera House, Finance Director John O’Connor said. But, O’Connor also noted, “the theater is a resource for the community. Because it is not 100 percent able to support itself does not mean it’s failing its purpose.” “Prices there are much lower here than other places,”
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RATTLEBORO— At first it was the Norwegians, immigrants to the Midwest in the late 1880s, who had the passion for ski jumping. Americans had never heard of the sport. Courtesy photo Some of the oldest ski jumping Brattleboro ski jumpers in Montreal in 1946: Left to right, Donald Allen (a clubs in the nation were started real estate agent who grew up on Walnut Street), Benjamin Buck (from the in places like Red Wing and St. Claremont Outing Club), Tink Austin, then 23 years old, and Alan Sergeant, Paul, Minn., and in Ishpeming, who ran the ski jumping part of the Outing Club at the time. Mich.
It’s easy to understand the thrill of flying off a hill, or in the case of some of these jumpers at the time, large rocks. Human beings have always dreamed of flying through the sky. The Wright brothers wouldn’t be up in the air at Kitty Hawk, N.C., for another 15 years, and so jumping off a hill wearing skis was the only way to fly. Meanwhile, around the same time over here in Brattleboro, Fred Harris was born. Eighteen years later, Harris — who was a n see norwegians, page 10
PA I D A D V E R T I S I N G • T O P L A C E YO U R A D , C A L L ( 8 0 2 ) 2 4 6 - 6 3 9 7 O R V I S I T W W W . C O M M O N S N E W S . O R G Gathering in Gratitude: The Night Passage mystical theater performance Sat Nov 20, 2 & 7 Sun Nov 21 2 pm the Stone Church, Brattleboro
254-1310
MahaloArtCenter.com
“LET’S TALK TURKEY!” Thanksgiving Day Special 8 a.m. to 12 noon 3 months: $110 6 months: $199.99
OUTER LIMITS HEALTH CLUB
802-257-B-FIT (2348) Visa • MasterCard Accepted
Seeking Audio of BUHS Christmas Concert (s) 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967 One or all would work I will pay for reproduction hgates@msad49.org
Seeking vendors for
Holiday Craft Fair
Sat., Dec. 11, $20/Table Westgate Community Center West Brattleboro 802-257-2430 or westgatehousing@ comcast.net
Thurs., Nov. 18 7:30 pm
Sierra Hull & Highway 111 w/ The Stockwell Brothers Bluegrass and Newgrass from Tennessee and Putney The united Church 15 Kimball hill, putney Tickets and info: 802-254-9276 www.twilightmusic.org
Second Chance Shoppe Celebrating 29 years of keeping your family affordably clothed! Kid’s Men’s Women’s Plus Sizes Rte. 35, Townshend Village M, W. Th, F. Sa. 9:30-4
BUYING/SELLING
2 Farmer’s Markets in 1 Day - Nov. 20
Chester Stone House
Winter Farmers’ Market, 10-2
COINS/SPORTS POSTCARDS Open 7 Days 802-379-2353
Pepsijoseph@yahoo.com
Brattleboro - Rt. 9, 10-2 AND
River Garden, downtown Bratt. thru March Ask about 2 for 2 Raffle ~ Support Local Farmers!