I’ve long thought that Hanover police arrest Dartmouth students for underage drinking to make money for the town. Maybe pumping up the town coffers isn’t the cops’ only motivation, though. Arresting underage drinkers can be quite the power trip, too, or so it seems from a recent case. In underage drinking cases involving 18- to 20-year-olds, Hanover cops decide who goes to court and who doesn’t. Students who don’t play by Hanover police rules can suddenly find they are no longer “qualified” for the department’s
It’s hard not to get bummed out when you drive past a dairy farm and see a for-sale sign. Particularly, when the farm belongs to Jim and Ellen Putnam. The Putnams have been model farmers who put everything they had — seven days a week — into their livestock and crops. I met the Putnams in 2002, after hearing about their Winsome Farm on Route 10 in Piermont from now retired-New Hampshire Agriculture Commissioner Steve Taylor, of Meriden. The Putnams had just been named a
Horses, cows and pigs, I get. But chickens? Why would a group of Hanover residents want rules to discourage people from raising chickens in some semi-rural parts of town? Perhaps they’re worried about bird flu. I suspect, though, it falls more into the we-don’t-want-anything-that-might-mess-with-our-property-values category. Apparently, Hanover hasn’t heard that hens are hip. In cities from New York to Los Angeles, backyard farming is all the rage. Then again, Hanover isn’t exactly the Seattle of the East. (Although a few summers ago, the town did
With spring in the air, I figured it’s a good time for a check-up. So here is what’s been happening with a few of the people I’ve written about in this space at one time or another. ∎ Dave Tupper arrived at his Canaan carpentry shop in mid-February to find that the place had been ransacked and many of his tools missing. This week, Canaan Police Chief Sam Frank told me that his department had made an arrest in the case. Charles Wallace, 57, of
Maybe it’s unavoidable that the Upper Valley is increasingly becoming a land of haves and have-nots. Most of the country is already there. Still it’s tough to watch. Last week, two items in the back pages of this newspaper were reminders of the economic disparity that exists from community to community in the Upper Valley. Item No. 1: “Hanover Student Wins National Merit Scholarship.” Dresden School District Superintendent Frank Bass called a news conference to announce that Hanover High senior Katherine Chen, who is bound
For an organization that prides itself on teaching survival skills, the Boy Scouts of America seems to have a death wish. As long as the Boy Scouts’ national leaders continue to insist it’s OK to discriminate against gays, the organization grows increasingly irrelevant in a society where — thank goodness — a person’s sexual orientation becomes less and less a big deal. As you may have read, the Boy Scouts of America’s executive committee has proposed a change in membership rules: openly gay youths will
By Jim Kenyon
Valley News Staff Writer
Monday, April 29, 2013
Mount Holly, Vt. — On a flat, desolate stretch of Route 155 in southern Rutland County, an old-fashioned roadhouse sits vacant. The Blue Spruce Inn was once a place where skiers and other travelers could stop for a drink or dinner. Some spent the night in motel-style rooms. But that was before many Vermont ski areas became year-round resorts that offered slopeside accommodations and restaurants. Over time, roadhouses like the Blue Spruce lost their appeal. Will Hunter, a former state senator for Windsor County who
Will Hunter was driving a former prison inmate to a job interview at a door manufacturing plant in Ludlow, Vt., recently when the man, in his 50s, started to question whether the trip was a waste of time. Hunter recognized it was more than just pre-interview jitters. “It had been years since he felt that he had succeeded at anything,” Hunter said, indicating the man had been in and out of prison for alcohol-fueled crimes for much of his time as an adult. So Hunter
The rows of cars and pickups that once filled the giant parking lots at the old Goodyear and Cone Blanchard plants in Windsor were a testament to the town’s vitality and blue-collar spirit. But for the last 25 years or so, those lots have mostly sat empty. So to drive into town on a Saturday night last month and find a chock-full parking lot — this one behind St. Francis of Assisi Church — was a sweet reminder on the way Windsor used to be.
I understand completely why anyone might be eager to find a way to reach Barnard that doesn’t involve driving through Woodstock. Motoring in and out of that speed trap can be expensive. Take it from someone who knows. But a helicopter? That seems a bit over the top. Strange but true. Last month, John J. Noffo Kahn applied for a town zoning permit to build a 2,500 square foot concrete helipad, complete with lights for night landings and takeoffs, at his $18 million vacation estate
