Views of Dummerston - 2022#3 - Summer

Art by Gary Blomgren

Volume 32 Issue 3

Summer ~ 2022

Free • Since 1990

Dummerston Cares Sponsors End-ofSummer Picnic for Community It’s very helpful to know how many people plan to attend—so please RSVP.

Drum roll, again! Set • Access the website, DummerstonCares.org, to respond that you the date in your calendars are coming. for an end-of-summer • Or you can respond to Dummerston Cares’ Message Line at (802) picnic for Dummerston 257-5800. residents on Sunday, continued on page 2 September 11, from 3–6 p.m. Last summer, we thanked Bill Schmidt of Dummerston Cares for saying, “It’s long overdue for people of Dummerston to get together for a celebration!” So we started planning an end-of-summer picnic. Then, caution around COVID caused us to cancel the picnic. So many of us were disappointed yet determined to be safe. We chose to be forward-looking to the summer of 2022. And now, here we are!

The picnic planners have been developing activities such as field games, music and storytelling, and a show-and-tell booth for town businesses, organizations, and committees. We’ll socialize with friends and neighbors as we experience what’s special about Dummerston and why we take such pride in our community. Yes, there’s still only one Dummerston in the whole wide world!

Got wheels? We’ll start the picnic at 3 p.m. with a bike-and-wheels parade. If you want, come at 2:30 to decorate your ride. Think: bikes, trikes, scooters, strollers, wheelchairs, pull-toys, handcarts, and roller luggage.

Supper will be at 5 p.m. You should bring Covered Bridge Repaired . . . Again! your own food to serve yourself and those with you. Dummerston Cares will supply A crew from Finishline Carpenters of Dummerston works on a repair to the east end of the covered refrigeration, iced tea, lemonade, and water. bridge in June, damaged last November when it was hit by an oversized box truck. The town’s insurance Plus, we’ll provide a special dessert for all. company will pursue reimbursement for the project through the truck owner’s insurance. Town clerk Laurie What to bring? Lawn chairs, blanket, Frechette chuckled when asked if it’s safe to say the bridge is damaged every couple of years. “I’d say something happens to the covered bridge every six months,” she replied. “One day I encountered a truck sunscreen, tick and insect repellent, coolers pulling a big camping trailer that was headed on to the bridge. I waved for them to stop, but they kept for your food, and whatever else you’ll need going, and I think hit every beam on the way through. I picked up pieces of the trailer from inside of the for an outdoor picnic as autumn approaches. bridge, but they never stopped. They just kept going. I think this happens more often than we know.”

photo by roger turner

By Catie G. Berg

2 • Summer, 2022 • Views of Dummerston

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

The Views is mailed free of charge to all residents of the town of Dummerston. It is also available online at viewsofdummerston.org. We encourage people to help us save printing and mailing expenses by cancelling their print subscription and accessing the Views online at viewsofdummerston.org; to do so please email Sara Ryan at: subscribe online@viewsofdummerston.org.

If you are not a resident of Dummerston and would prefer to receive a paper copy of the Views, you may subscribe for an annual cost of $5. Mail a check made payable to Views of Dummerston, with your name and mailing address to Lee Tice, 230 School House Rd., East Dummerston, VT 05346.

ARTICLES:

We welcome all articles related in any way to the town of Dummerston, including news of town organizations, personalities, history, or activities. Email Microsoft Word documents (preferred) to: articles@viewsof dummerston.org. Typed or hand-written articles can also be sent to: Michelle Cherrier, 72 Miller Rd., East Dummerston, VT 05346.

CALENDAR:

Any (non-commercial) event you would like listed on our Calendar of Events should be emailed to: calendar@ viewsofdummerston.org, or mailed to Michelle Cherrier at the above address.

NEXT ISSUE: Submissions due: Septeber 13 Views will be mailed on: October 27 ADVERTISING:

Rates: All rates are for four issues, however a large or small box ad can be placed for just one issue at an adjusted rate. Payment should be by a check made out to the Views of Dummerston, and mailed to: Sara Ryan, 53 Greenhoe Rd., East Dummerston, VT 05346 Small Box Ad $55 Large Box Ad $85 Information/Inquiries: Contact Sara Ryan at: ads@ viewsofdummerston.org, or at 387-0110.

SPONSORSHIPS:

Sponsorships of $25 for four issues augment our ad revenues to provide us with operating funds. You will be notified when your sponsorship is up and invited to renew. If you wish to become a sponsor or have questions, contact Sara Ryan as above.

Digital Views Available Featuring easy navigation, clickable links, and full color, we’re sure you’ll love it! viewsofdummerston.org

Dummerston Selectboard Meetings Recorded and televised by BCTV and online at www.brattleborotv.org. (Select “Watch”, select “Watch On Demand”, select “Playlist”, scroll to “Dummerston”, select meeting.)

The Dummerston Garden

A Little Bug That Causes Big Problems on Fruit Trees Vern Grubinger,

Professor, UVM Extension

Spotted Wing Drosophila (SWD), attacks soft fruits like blueberries, grapes, and raspberries as they ripen in late summer and fall. This invasive pest arrived in our area about a decade ago.

Native to Asia, it looks a lot like a fruit fly— the kind that buzz around over-ripe bananas. But this fly is very different because the females have saw-like egglaying appendages called serrated ovipositors that let them cut into ripening (not rotting) fruit to deposit their brood.

The eggs then hatch into larvae that feed inside the fruit before pupating and emerging as adults. The whole process may take only 2 or 3 weeks, and females can lay 100 eggs a day, so the populations increase extremely fast when conditions are right. It’s the males that give the species its common name; they have a single dark spot on the edge of each of their wings.

SWD infests the ripe fruit of many plants, both cultivated and wild, so there are a lot of reservoirs for the pest in the natural landscape, including wild raspberries, pokeweed, and autumn olive. Fall raspberries, grapes, blueberries, cherries, and day-neutral strawberries are very vulnerable cultivated crops. The insect doesn’t cause damage by eating the fruit – it’s the small puncture wound from egg-laying that creates an entry for microbes, so in a few days the fruit starts to rot.

SWD overwinters quite well in cold climates like ours, but populations don’t build up until the end of July, staying high into mid-September in

the Northeast, depending on weather conditions.

Once the nights start to get cold, the populations drop off.

Successful management of SWD requires multiple approaches. Harvest fruit frequently and completely to limit the presence of ripe and overripe fruit. Harvest as much fruit as possible and get rid of over-ripe or damaged fruit by burying it or placing it in clear plastic bags in the sun to kill larvae and prevent them from emerging as adults. Refrigerate or freeze fruit immediately after harvest.

Chilling the fruit slows development of SWD larvae and eggs. (Eating the very tiny eggs or larvae that may be in the fruit is not harmful.)

Adult SWD like to hang out where it is cool and humid, so heavy pruning to increase sunlight and air flow makes plants less attractive. Dry, open conditions reduce the number of eggs that will be laid in fruit. For the same reason, avoiding sprinkler irrigation (versus drip irrigation) and allowing the soil or mulch surface to dry well between waterings can help. Applying insect netting completely over the crop before any fruit starts to ripen can effectively exclude SWD, if the net mesh size is 1 mm square or smaller. All the net edges on the ground must be sealed, too, using rocks or boards, etc. While there are a few insecticides labeled for control of SWD, their use is tricky because of the need for frequent applications as new SWD hatch and because it is the ripe fruit that need protection. In general, spraying is not recommended for home fruit growers. For more information, see one of the many cooperative extension web sites on SWD.

Dummerston Cares End-of-Summer Picnic WHERE: Dummerston School continued from page 1 HOW: RSVP to DummerstonCares.org.

WHO: Dummerston residents of all Or call Dummerston Cares’ Mesages. sage Line at (802) 257-5800.

WHAT: End-of-Summer Picnic, with BRING: Lawn chairs, blanket, sunscreen, complimentary beverages and insect repellent, your picnic special dessert. in a cooler for self/family, and WHEN: Sunday, September 11, from 3-6 jackets. p.m.

QUESTIONS? Contact info@DummerstonCares.org.

The Views of Dummerston Mission Statement

Providing reports of town organizations, and stories of townspeople and their good deeds, in promoting cooperation and understanding toward creating a more “ideal” Dummerston.

“All who read may also contribute!”—Mary Lou McBean, founder, Views of Dummerston

Image courtesy of catalog.extension.oregonstate.edu

The Views of Dummerston is a quarterly newsletter published by a group of citizen volunteers since 1990, and has non-profit status through the Dummerston Community Center. Mary Lou McBean had the original vision for and was first editor of the Views, and Gary Blomgren created the original masthead art.

The current steering committee includes Roger Turner (editor), Michelle Cherrier (co-articles coordinator and calendar), Fred Lee (layout), Sara Ryan (ad coordinator), Linda Rood (co-articles coordinator), and Lee Ives Tice (mailing). We always welcome new interest in joining the committee.

Views of Dummerston • Summer, 2022• 3

town government Dummerston Selectboard

Volunteers Needed for Important Vacant Positions

By Terry Chapman The selectboard has stayed very active as of late with a variety of things before us. As we remain active, so are a whole host of other town residents who are serving the town in various functions. We appreciate all the hard work that goes into running our small town.

With that said, we are in dire need of others to come forth to help us out. The DRB is a critical part of our town and we are at a minimal level of members. The selectboard has just recently approved a request by the planning commission to reduce its size from a nine-member board to seven so they can make a quorum at meetings. Jean Newell is retiring next March after numerous years as our town lister. We are grateful for all her hard work over the years.

Selectboard Looking for Residents to Fill the Following Positions Lister—Elected 3-year term March 2023 / paid position Lister Assistant—100 hours per fiscal year / paid position Selectboard Assistant—10 hours a week / paid position

The selectboard has in our current budget added hours for a lister assistant. If anyone is interested in what a lister’s job entails, please send them an email (listers@dummerston. org), or give them a call at the town office (257-1496). There is also a vacancy on the Windham Regional Commission and we are still looking for a selectboard assistant. If anyone is interested in these or other positions, please reach out to the selectboard at selectboard@dummerston.org.

We are still working through the reimbursement process with FEMA for repairs of storm damage from last July. Thanks to treasurer Charlotte Neer Annis’s hard work, all the documentation for categories A and B, debris removal and emergency protective measures (the work done by the town and local contractors at the time of the storm to restore damaged roads and infrastructure), have been processed.

This was the bulk of the damage, and it is in the mitigation process, in which FEMA reviews the claims we’ve submitted to determine if the scope of the work was consistent with the amount of storm damage. After mitigation is completed, payment will go to the state and then come to us. The town is responsible for 5% of the cost. We had three areas in town that had more significant damage, those being Johnsons Curve Road, Camp Arden Road, and School House Road. Johnsons Curve Road was fixed this spring. The board has recently awarded a bid for the Camp Arden Road project to be

completed this summer. Road foreman Lee Chamberlin and I met with site inspectors from FEMA in early June on School House Road. They looked over the project and we are currently awaiting a determination from FEMA about whether they will fund it.

The board will have had its first meeting at the end of July with boards, commissions, and residents to review project proposals for spending the $521,000 available to Dummerston through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Criteria for these proposals have been summarized in the Final Rule, a document created by the U.S. Treasury Department, which is available online at: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/ SLFRF-Final-Rule-Overview.pdf The selectboard has until December 30, 2024 to obligate the money and the money must be spent by December 30, 2026. This will be a lengthy process which we look forward to working through with selected organizations.

Sponsors Alvino & Bea Fantini Paul & Jody Normandeau Cindy and John Wilcox Michelle Cherrier & Philip Goepp Eleanora Patterson & Gordon Faison

Windham Regional Commission Commissioner—Appointed 1-year term / volunteer Development Review Board—Appointed 3-year term / volunteer If you are interested in serving in one of these positions, please send a letter of interest to selectboard@dummerston.org.

Prepare for tomorrow, by contacting us today.

(802) 649-2501

therichardsgrp.com

Sponsors Gordon & Linda Evans

Fruit CSA Sign Ups • Farm Market Baking & Hard Cider Workshops

Heather & Gene Rostov Akara Draper & Linnie Jones Elizabeth Catlin & Jared Flynn Cliff Adler & Lynn Levine

4 • Summer, 2022 • Views of Dummerston

town government Dummerston Conservation Commission

Lynn Levine Talks and Walks Ferns

By John Anderson

Time marches on. The great, green growing season has passed its prime. People are starting to think about school opening, birds migrating, and lists of unfinished warm weather projects. Summer is all too short for most and the conservation commission is no exception.

Early this season, Lynn Levine held a fern walk. Participants were provided with a copy of her book Identifying Ferns the Easy Way – A Pocket Guide to Ferns of the Northeast. A short indoor talk on the subject was followed by an ever-popular woods walk that gave people a chance to practice what they had learned and to hone their observational skills. Levine’s woods walks are a fun, informative way for people to experience the forests that are such a huge part of our local landscape.

Michael Clough, managing director of the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum, accompanied by several live animal ambassadors, spoke on “Animals of Dummerston and Where to Find Them.” This event, held in the elementary school gym, attracted a good crowd, including some young, inquisitive nature lovers who kept Clough on his toes and who gave us all hope for the future. It was good to once again have school- and preschool-aged participants at a commission event.

Chairwoman Christine Goepp has reimag-

bakerviolnshop@gmail.com

ined the commission’s monthly e-newsletter, which now features a trail-of-the-month write-up accompanied by trail maps formatted by David Greenwalt. Upcoming events and presentations, along with much other pertinent information, is also disseminated, and a calendar of seasonal nature facts is featured.

The commission has also attracted two new members, Emily Alexander and Jesse Wagner, bringing us nearly back to full strength. Alexander is currently reviewing the commission’s website trying to keep all information contained there up-to-date and easily accessible.

The commission also has a Facebook page and a blog that people can visit, and recordings of many presentations we have hosted over the years can be found in the Brattleboro Community Television archives.

Our ongoing wildflower inventory has also documented several new-to-the-state plants, some possible troublesome invasives, and brought them to the attention of pertinent state agencies and responsible botanists. A remarkable number of plants are shifting their range north, some of them to Dummerston.

Now, having reported, I’m going to ramble off into the condensed version of many decades’ worth of perilous-appearing gray squirrel missteps that I’ve observed.

Gray squirrels are arboreal, and they are remarkably agile but are not infallible. Many times over the decades I have seen a squirrel plummet out of the treetops, from heights of up to 60 feet. Surprisingly, such falls are not, in my experience, fatal. They may not even be injurious. At least not usually.

I recall watching squirrels traveling an arboreal highway, leaping from tree to tree across a substantial gap in the foliage. As one squirrel attempted the leap, a gust of wind whipped its intended landing spot aside and the hapless rodent dropped directly to earth.

Sponsors Linda Rood & Roger Turner Nick & Joan Thorndike Dick & Harriet Virkstis Marcy Hermansader Lou Nelson

john & Lori Brunelle office fax: (802) 254-5818 416 Tucker Reed road office phone: (802) 254-9788 e. dummerston, vt 05346 John cell: (802): 579-9788 lori cell: (802) 275-7111 john@brunelleandson.com lori@brunelleandson.com www.brunelleandson.com

That squirrel hit the ground with an audible thud and with such force that it rebounded a foot or a foot and a half off the springy forest duff. When the stunned rodent once again hit the ground, it went immediately into the random, frantic evasive scramble that it would use to avoid a predator (or a car) that was bearing down on it. Within seconds it encountered a tree trunk, seemingly by chance, and scrambled back toward its arboreal realm.

Since that day, sixty or more years ago, I have seen quite a few gray squirrels fall from their treetop travel routes. A year or two ago while walking on Day Road a previously unnoticed squirrel thudded down onto the hard packed gravel mere feet from me, then went into its evasive scramble before escaping back into the trees.

It seems that surviving falls is a part of a gray squirrel’s skill set. Once in free fall, a squirrel spreads its legs and its tail, flying-squirrel-fashion, to present maximum surface area and slow its descent. That pose also exposes the maximum surface area to ground contact at impact.

Last summer I witnessed a mother squirrel relocating her young to a new drey.

Normally, a mother squirrel moving young carries them cat fashion, one at a time in her mouth, making multiple trips to the new nest. However, this squirrel was attempting to lead her very young, very weak pups through the treetops, and time and again I watched tiny frail-appearing squirrels fall 20, 30, even 40 feet. Eventually the squirrel mother retrieved them, one at a time, and carried them off. A few days later all of the young were out of the drey exploring their new home tree, seemingly none the worse for their harrowing falls!

Gray squirrels are arboreal, and they are remarkably agile, but they are not infallible.

In fact, they fall often enough that the species has apparently evolved techniques that allow them to survive such missteps.

Witnessing a gray squirrel’s fall and hearing the thud of its impact is a bit horrifying. It’s hard to imagine that the squirrel could be unharmed by the experience. But squirrels appear to be more mentally rattled than physically injured by such missteps and after impact they immediately resume their arboreal ways.

For more information on the commission go to http://www.dummerstonconservation.com.

Views of Dummerston • Summer, 2022• 5

organizations Historical Society

Schoolhouse Will Have Open Hours in the Fall

pant in our programs, or as a viewer of our continued support.

The Dummerston Historical Society always exhibits. (Please note that you do not need to be welcomes donations of historical interest to a member of the Historical Society to attend any We are looking forward to inviting all of Dummerston and we encourage you to join of our functions.) Our Schoolhouse is handiyou to visit the Schoolhouse during open hours us in 2022 as a member, a volunteer, a partici- capped accessible. You are always welcome. in the fall, particularly those of you new to Dummerston in recent years, (though old timers A New Frontier are welcome, too), to view our many exhibits

by Fay Morrison Eckerson, Part III (Circa 1916) and albums, such as Houses of Dummerston, Part of the time I rode the train to school. It was a brisk walk to the old granite quarry the Stone Pound, Artists of Dummerston, early in the morning and usually a cold wait for the train. But the night ride home, now, Authors of Dummerston, the West Dummercomes the difficult part. The first night I used my ticket good for 20 rides, my brothers ston Covered Bridge, and many more. Children met me with the lantern, and the train was 3 hrs. late. They had to wait on the steps of the will be invited to imagine going to school in this quarry office as everything locked up at night. building, to sit in the old school desk chairs, The railroad only employed one crew and when they got off the track, which was quite and explore the stone pound, recreated by Dan often and were late, the crew had to have so many hours off before they could run again.

Snow. More details will be coming this fall!

The latest I ever got home was 2 a.m., but we were often late to school.

We welcome the opportunity to share our love I was terribly afraid and didn’t want to carry a light so no person or thing could tell just of Dummerston’s past and present with you! where I was. One night where the road and tracks separated at the foot of the mountain Our quarterly meeting, held by Zoom on July I smelled what I thought was whiskey. A tramp from the tracks I thought, and ran until 21st, was well attended. We wish to thank Glenn I dropped from exhaustion. The next morning at the same spot I smelled it again and Annis, an expert on the West River Railroad discovered it was the sap of a hazel nut bush. that ran for 36 miles from Brattleboro to South There were bears on Black Mt., and a few people had heard the scream of a panther.

Londonderry between 1880 and 1936. ConcenMany years later I heard one and if it had been during my school years—I would have trating on its significant role in Dummerston become a drop-out, at that moment. history, Glenn described the local route which passed the Dummerston quarries, crossed the West River, then north to Newfane and beyond.

A lively conversation, with many questions, The bottom line is that Cares doesn’t want

By Bill Schmidt answers, and stories ensued. All of our quarterly any resident to struggle with a home heating meetings are recorded and are available for We’re still in the heart of summer but, I need in the fall and winter. To learn more viewing on our website: dummerstonhistorical hesitate to say it, fall and winter are not all that about assistance Cares can provide, call Cares’ society.org.

A reminder that our signature T-shirts and far off. And come late fall and winter there’s Message Line at (802) 257-5800, leave your covered bridge note cards are available at the the matter of heating our homes. Cares has name and phone number, and a Cares board town office or by contacting us at dummerston- a Home Heating Fuel Fund that can assist member will get back to you. historicalsociety@gmail.com. All of these sales any family or person who may need a hand in help fund our ongoing expenses such as heat, paying for heating fuel in the coming seasons, Sponsors electricity, and insurance. Thank you for your given its high cost now. The state may be able to provide some of this assistance, but Cares Allan & Sally Seymour can be helpful too, especially in paying for fuel Compliments of Milt & Barbara Gilmore before the state program kicks in in December, Priscilla Svec, P.T. and then again in late winter after the state Rip Lhamon & Fita Ferguson Practicing Holistic Physical Therapy program ends. Contact Cares if you need help Jo-Ann Tier in checking the availability of state funds and 126 Main Street, Putney Tim Knapp & John Bouffard to learn more about ways Cares can help you 387-4799 stay warm when cold weather appears.

By Muriel Taylor President

Cares Can Help With Heating Expenses

D u m m e r s t o n Congregational Church se r vices at 1 0 : 0 0

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6 • Summer, 2022 • Views of Dummerston

organizations

Travel Back to the Stone Age with Gravitas Dummerstonian Tom Hathaway, 48, has created a game called Gravitas; it is played with pieces he carves out of stone. The stone can come from river beds, from quarries (he fittingly lives on Quarry Road), and even from old marble countertops. When the pieces are fondled by the fingers they become lustrous, and when they are put together in the game, they make beautiful sculptures. The pieces are made in six different shapes. The game could be described as Jenga, but instead of a wooden tower, with every round of the game you are building a new miniature Stonehenge.

Tom flat out loves stone. Finding them is his passion. “I’m a river person. I’m a water person.

And being close to the river means that you’re close to stone,” he said. “And Dummerston is the greatest spot. I love it.”

A lot of the pieces are made from rock he finds in Stickney Brook, he said. “And this one is from the Rock River,” he said, holding up different pieces. “This one is from the actual quarry on Quarry Road. I don’t put mineral oil on them, but if you do, it will enhance their vibrance.”

Tom is not a native of Dummerston. He was born in Leominster, Massachusetts, but fell in love with skiing at Mt. Snow. “When I was a child I wanted to go skiing and I showed up at Mount Snow,” he said. “I found that this was kind of my home. I started skiing and kayaking.

The Rock River and the West River are big kayaking meccas. And this is the area for the stone: the serpentine, the granite, the hornblende, and a lot of the marble. I lived in northern Vermont. I

Sponsors Bruce & Catie Berg Gail & Lew Sorenson Elsa Waxman David & Nina Hutchison Kevin & Sara Ryan John & Sheila Pinkney

photo by roger Turner

By Joyce Marcel

lived in Warren, Vermont for a long time. I lived today,” Tom told me. “Put your phones down. in Barre, Moretown, Rochester. But I always I think it’s healthy to go back to the stone age.”

Tom wholesales the games, which can be bought locally at Hermit Thrush Brewery and all three Dutton Farm Store locations. He estimates his games are now in every state in the union except for six, including five in Hawaii.

For every ten games he sells he gives one away.

He puts his phone number on the back of the instructions, and gamers call him frequently to tell him how “smitten” or “obsessed” they are with Gravitas.

Tom works in the business with his long-term partner, Kristin Atkins, whom he calls “my beacon of light.” She handles the packaging – a canvas sack with a drawstring and the words Gravitas colorfully stenciled on the side. She also does a lot of the organizational work. And Tom cuts the stones.

“I feel like this is my retirement,” he said. “I’m Tom Hathaway takes a break from cutting stones for so grateful. I get to go look for stones because I Gravitas, the rock-stacking game he has invented kayak on the river. I paddle down. I go to islands and manufactures at his home on Quarry Road. that nobody goes to. And I fill my boat with rocks find it home here. We lived on River Road for and I paddle home. And then I cut them up.”

13 years, but now we’ve moved downstream a little bit to Quarry Road, which I love.”

Tom is the perfect person to have invented this game; his last career was working in his family business as a memorial engraver; the first grave stone the family made, when he was

By Bill Schmidt young, was, painfully, for his mother. But Tom has come to terms with the pain. “I wouldn’t be Sunday, September 25, from 3-5 p.m., is the where I am today if it wasn’t for that,” he said. date and time of Cares’ annual meeting this “I thank her every day for this opportunity. year. This meeting will be held at the CongreBecause doing memorials is difficult.” He and gational Church in Dummerston Center. Town his father created grave markers and tombstones residents are invited to come and learn about for thousands of bereaved families. Then, three Cares’ programs and services and, most years ago, his father sold the business and Tom importantly, share thoughts on programs and created Gravitas. services that could be improved in any way.

He has made almost 2,000 sets. Each game Ideas for new activities will also be welcomed. comes with 36 pieces of shaped stone, a base to After the annual meeting the board will elect build on, easy-to-read instructions and one die to officers for the new year. throw. Finding out about Gravitas is difficult; it is Please call the Cares Message Line at (802) mostly word-of-mouth. Gravitas has a Facebook 258-5800 if you would like to be emailed or page but no web site, and Tom said that he has postal mailed the agenda and other information no email. “Everyone is obsessed with technology about the meeting.

Cares Sets Date for Annual Meeting

Views of Dummerston • Summer, 2022• 7

organizations

Everyone Eats to Continue Through Summer

By Pam McFadden

I am so happy to report that the program Everyone Eats will continue through the summer and possibly into the fall. Our terrific volunteers have stepped up and will continue to pick up and deliver meals to six families in Dummerston. We have meals available on Tuesday and Thursday nights. We deliver to one family and stock the refrigerator in the basement of the Dummerston Congregational Church with the remaining meals. Recipients sign up with me and then can pick up the meals any time after 5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is first come, first served.

If you or anyone you know in Dummerston would benefit from a couple of meals a week, please reach out to me or anyone on the Dummerston Cares Board. My email is momsterex35@ gmail.com, or text or call me at (802) 451-6945.

Everyone Eats is an innovative, multi-sector COVID relief program providing economic support to local restaurants, economic benefit to farmers, and restaurant-prepared meals for food-insecure Vermonters who have been nega-

tively impacted by COVID. All three pillars of the program—restaurants, farmers, and eaters—continue to benefit significantly from this program.

In July 2020, the Vermont legislature enacted the Restaurants and Farmers Feeding the Hungry program “to provide assistance to Vermonters who are food insecure due to the COVID-19 public health emergency by engaging Vermont restaurants that have suffered economic harm due to [this] emergency to prepare meals using foodstuffs purchased from Vermont farms and food producers.” This initiative, known as Vermont Everyone Eats, has provided over 2.4 million meals since it began in August 2020.

Participating restaurants are required to use a minimum of ten percent local ingredients grown or produced in Vermont, for a program-wide average of 35% local ingredients. Over 260 restaurants and 300 farmers have benefited from the program, which currently distributes 30,000 meals per week through eleven community hubs.

Beginning July 1, 2022, FEMA’s COVID relief funding will shift from 100% federal

Community Center

Tag Sale Fundraiser a Success!

By Ann Davis

Our spring tag sale, with lots of interesting and “special treasures,” was very successful!

We thank those of you who joined us on that Saturday morning to hunt for that certain find and those who donated items for the sale. A special thank you goes to Tracy, who sorted and set up our treasure room. We plan to have another sale in the fall, and we hope to see you all back again to search for your bargains.

We are waiting for the cost of building materials to go down so we can start construction on the quarry wagon shed. If you would like to participate in this project, please call • • •

Onsite Septic Design, LLC Alan J. McBean

943 Park Laughton Rd. East Dummerston, VT 05346

• •

Inground Mounds New Construction/ Replacement Water Supply Geologic Consulting VT Lic #536 Cell 802-258-0971 Home 802-254-6975

Rick Davis at 802-380-6533. I’m sure he will be happy for your input and help.

The Center is open and waiting for you to plan your next event. We are handicapped accessible, and have a great space with a kitchen, ample bathrooms, parking, picnic tables, and a large play yard including a ball field. So plan ahead and reserve your date. Call Jean at 802-254-9212.

Dogs are welcome to use the field; just remember to be a responsible pet owner and clean up after your friend.

Thank you to all of you who continue to support the Center and keep it open for the whole community to use.

funding to 90/10 federal/local cost-share. The new allocation of state funding provides the 10% non-federal match for Vermont Everyone Eats to continue for no more than one year, for as long as there is both a federal pandemic emergency and a COVID-related need within the state.

The program has brought over thirty-one million dollars of federal revenue into the state to date.

Friends of the Library

Friends Purchase $1500 Worth of Books

By Linda Rood Again this year, with town meeting canceled, the Friends of the Library were unable to present their Adopt-a-Book fund raiser. By broadcasting on Front Porch Forum, with the help of Jody Normandeau, and in the town clerk’s email that we were in need of funds, twenty-five people kindly sent us donations. Adding in a Community Chest contribution, the Friends were able to purchase $1500 worth of books for the Dummerston School Library for the next school year.

The Friends are very grateful to all who helped us out and allowed us to maintain our program.

We hope that next year will allow us to return to our traditional town meeting event at which we can show you the new books that we have added to the collection, available for adoption!

Sponsors John & Karen Abel Roberta Garland Orly Munzing & Bob Dunbar Mark and Lee Tice Fred Lee Bill & Kathleen Fleischmann

Primary Care  Emergency Care  PT/OT Just up the road in Townshend 365-7357 www.gracecottage.org

8 • Summer, 2022 • Views of Dummerston

organizations Dummerston Cares Volunteer of the Season

Naturalist John Anderson Never Stops Learning and Sharing

By Bill Schmidt

Sponsors Debbie & Dennis Baker Eleanor & Charles Fish Jan & Todd Brown Teri Robinson Marguerite Demotte Sallie May Naturally Grown Vegetables Free Choice CSA Raw Honey 440 Miller Rd, E. Dummerston VT

By Lynn Levine

John’s eyes have touched 850 species of flowering plants growing in Dummerston.

In the spring or summer day after day with a cotton cap John climbs a rocky hill or sits at the edge of a power line or wades in a marshy swamp.

John can identify rough wood aster.

Most others, just asters. photo by ed anthes

We are very fortunate to have naturalist John Anderson in Dummerston. Having grown up in nearby Williamsville before moving to Dummerston, John knows southeastern Vermont well. A carpenter by trade, he has schooled himself in the natural world throughout his life and continues to do so, ever the learner. Moreover, he not only continues to learn, but he also shares what he learns with all of us through his service on the conservation commission, detailed contributions to the commission’s website, involvement in various commission projects, and his “standing room only” talks on plant and animal life in Dummerston at the commission’s public meetings. The documentation of his findings and sightings from this period of time will be invaluable to townspeople and others for generations to come as climate changes occur, and plants and animals adapt to them.

We meet John in every edition of the Views in his articles, which always include his musings about his experiences in nature. Remember his story about juncos bathing in water under an ice shelf in winter, or his story about how a black coyote and five brown cows faced off against one another? John has compiled an extensive inventory of the flowering plants in town and for almost three decades he has led the annual fall Putney Mountain Hawk Watch.

John is a humble, unassuming guy. In his quiet way he’s a backbone of the conservation commission in his longevity as a member,

Naturalist In Dummerston

With binoculars at the ready, John Anderson is pictured on one of his rambles, ready to investigate any chance, wondrous event he may encounter in the natural world he studies, and talks and writes about in his presentations and Views articles.

his deep knowledge of the natural world, his thoughtfulness and gift with words in sharing what he knows, and the easy relationship he has with others.

Fellow naturalist and forester Lynn Levine sums up who John is as a person and naturalist in her poem about him (at right).

Fast Eddie’s Restaurant Ice Cream Shop OPEN YEAR ROUND Catering- Lunch ~Dinner~ Dine-in Curbside Pick up~ Take-Out 833Putney Road ~ (802)-579-1474

Fast Eddie’s Restaurant Ice Cream Shop OPEN YEAR ROUND Catering- Lunch ~Dinner~ Dine-in Curbside Pick up~ Take-Out 833Putney Road ~ (802)-579-1474

He records these treasures with photos and stories so others can see, through his eyes.

The next morning with impish smile he puts on his cap ready to walk again until during autumn for 28 years day after day with binoculars in hand he heads 20 souls to count migrating raptors measuring nature’s health Eddie’s Restaurant on top of PutneyFast Mountain.

Ice Cream Shop He doesn’t shout his findings, OPEN YEAR ROUND instead is humbled by them.

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Fast Eddie’s Restaurant Ice Cream Shop OPEN YEAR ROUND

Fast Eddie’s Restaurant Ice Cream Shop OPEN YEAR ROUND

Views of Dummerston • Summer, 2022• 9

school news

School Celebrates and Awards Graduates, Honors Veteran and Retiring Teachers

By Julianne Eagen Principal

The end of the year is such a bittersweet time for all of us. Dummerston School children have been growing, learning, changing, and emerging right before our very eyes, and these last months of the school year always coincide with the realization that (WOW!) they are ready to launch into their next grade level, and, in the case of our eighth graders, to high school. We celebrate their growth, while at the same time, we cling a bit to the little people they once were.

It has been over a month since the passing of Lori Reynolds, Dummerston School kitchen staff member, Dummerston resident, and sister of paraeducator Kathy Bacon. Lori worked to prepare meals for children in our school district for the last six years. She was an invaluable asset to our school district during a time when all of us needed it the most, and our school community mourns her loss. There are so many unsung heroes who stepped up to care for children and families during the pandemic, and Lori was one of them. Please read this interview about Lori from last spring which captures her spirit and dedication so beautifully: https:// www.foodconnects.org/news-2/2021/4/9/whofeeds-our-kids-lori-reynolds. Thank you to Walker Farm who donated a beautiful crabapple tree in memory of Lori which will be planted by middle school students before the end of the school year.

Last month, the school district honored Dummerston School retirees and those reaching their five-year milestones. To make the night even more incredibly special, we watched Jen Brown receive the Madelyn Moore award and Ellen Rago pay tribute to Jen through a speech that honored Jen’s incredible and unique talent, expertise, and dedication to the students and staff of Dummerston School. Other honorees that night included Keith Marshall and Beth Montgomery for five years of service, Heidi

Twenty-one students graduated from Dummerston School on June 14th, ready to move on to high school.

Here they are gathered outside the school earlier this spring.

Bristol for thirty years of service, and Kathy performances. We are so appreciative of the Bacon, Sandy Draper, and Jen for their retire- opportunity to showcase our students’ creativity ment. continued on page 10 Our first community work party at the end of May was another cathartic moment for Dummerston School. After over two years of Summertime planning while navigating our way through Garden Gatherings a pandemic, so many parents, students, staff, and community members came out on a hot, at Dummerston Elementary School sunny day with rakes, tractors, clippers, and Monday mornings 9-11a.m. shovels. Thank you again to the Dummerston Congregational Church whose tent was erected 6/20, 6/27, 7/4, 7/11, 7/18, 7,25, 8/15, 8/22 on the morning of this event and provided cool Dummerston School Gardeners shade for volunteers. Please visit our website Facebook Group at dummerston.wsesu.org to learn more about https://www.facebook.com/ how you can support our outdoor learning and groups/2745725242330390 play project.

May also coincided with the Spring Arts contact Tara Gordon Celebration. Music teachers Rita Corey and tgordon@wsesdvt.org Mary Harvey-Bandish as well as art teacher with interest and to sign up ahead of time.

Ben Ferguson put together an incredible event Drop-ins welcome that included mesmerizing displays of student artwork, as well as band, chorus, and xylophone

Brattleboro Support Pharmacy Locally 413 Canal Street

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Certified Organic Vegetables & Fruit

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10 • Summer, 2022 • Views of Dummerston

School Celebrates and Awards Graduates, Honors Teachers continued from page 9 and talent in person!

On June 3, Dummerston School eighth graders hosted the most welcoming and wonderful dress-up dance. The students worked together to prepare for every aspect of the dance, decorating the gym, handling the refreshments, signing-in students, and making sure everyone had an amazing time. Then on Saturday, many of these same students raced

their solar cars under the direction of STEM teacher Keith Marshall. Dummerston had three cars in the finals! Check it out at Solar Powered Fun. Thank you to the entire school staff and families for preparing students for these cumulative eighth-grade experiences where they shine so brightly.

On June 14th, the Dummerston School QSA hosted our first Pride Parade. With funding from the district Diversity and Equity fund, the

8th-Grade Graduation Awards

Community Awards These students have all stepped up in different ways to help our school community.

Taylor Barrows • Evan Robinson • Cameron Lawrence • Ben Stauffer • ººLydia Ayer Social Contract Awards Beginning in the 2020-2021 school year, the Dummerston School community started a tradition of empowering students to develop their own social contract which articulates our shared agreement for how we will learn together and be the best community we can be. Each classroom, PreK-8th grade, develops its own contract, and then representatives of each class gather in September to share their class contracts and develop one schoolwide social contract to rule them all.

This year, the social contract has four elements: Be kind and inclusive (citizenship), Be positive and work together (collaboration), Be responsible and safe, Be engaged.

Throughout the year, our school has focused on embodying our social contract through our actions and words. The following awards are given to students who shined in this rich and meaningful work.

Be Kind and Inclusive (Citizenship) Ruth E. Knapp Memorial Award: Colby Bristol and Aiden Morton Art Avery Award: Finley Rink Melinda Bussino Award: Parker Thibault Arlene G. Forrett Award: Sydney Wheeler Be Positive and Work Together (Collaboration) Sweetzer Award: Riley Bristol and Augustine McGilion Tim Garland Award: Riley Bristol Virtual High School Recognition: Maisie Arnold, Colby Bristol, Luca Feusi, CF, Augustina McGilion, Skylar Marshall, Parker Thibault, Sydney Wheeler Be Engaged Jenny Rubinstein English Award: Charlie Forthofer Irsch Award: Luca Feusi Women’s Association Award: Luca Feusi, Skylar Marshall, and Maise Arnold Jean Shaw Award: Colby Bristol Teacher Awards These students are recognized for exceptional levels of engagement and improvement.

Cassidy Chamberlin Gabriel Hodgman Hailey Chase

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Sponsors Meg Murtha Jack & Judy Davidson Tom Zopf Joe & Anne Little Doug and Ann Kroc Alvino & Bea Fantini

Dummerston Diversity and Equity Committee has purchased t-shirts for each student with the words “Dummerston Diversity and Equity” surrounded by a heart rainbow which many students wore to show their support and love.

Many of our students have LGBTQ+ family members and friends, as well as classmates with LGBTQ+ parents, and therefore Pride Month has relevance for everyone. This event is an opportunity to support equity and inclusion for all members of our school community.

That same night we enjoyed a spectacular eighth-grade graduation under the Dummerston Church Congregational Church’s tent.

The evening included student speeches, staff memories, a student-created slideshow, reception organized by seventh-grade families, as well as the presentation of awards. Thank you to staff, students, and families for organizing such a beautiful send-off for our eighth graders.

On our last day together as a staff, we bid farewell to our beloved retirees, including academic support teacher Jen Brown, paraeducators Kathy Bacon and Sandy Draper, and instrumental music teacher Mary Harvey-Bandish.

Please join me in thanking and congratulating these educators for their many years of service to Dummerston School students. In addition, we said goodbye to kindergarten teacher Hannah Lindner-Finlay, social worker Susan GuntherMohr, and behavior interventionist Maribeth Fonda. We wish all three well as they transition to new positions and opportunities.

Without a doubt, Covid continued to place significant and sometimes unpredictable demands on us as a school community this year, and we are all so grateful to our staff, students, and families for navigating these challenges and working together to support the joyful learning, growth, and development of Dummerston School children.

Everyone at Dummerston School wishes you the best this summer, and we look forward to seeing you (in person!) in the coming school year. We welcome the entire Dummerston community to partner with us in support of the students of Dummerston School. Please join us at our next Dummerston School Leadership Council meeting on Thursday, August 19th, at 6 p.m., in person.

Views of Dummerston • Summer, 2022• 11 Good Books

The Art of the Wasted Day and a Good Story

By Linda Rood What could be more appropriate for summer reading than a book called The Art of the Wasted Day? I thought this book was going to help me learn to relax and lose my guilt over time wasted. Actually, the title is misleading, however attractive it may be. Written by Patricia Hampl, author of The Florist’s Daughter, and published

by Viking in 2018, the book is emphatically not a self-help manual, but more a travelogue/ memoir in which the author celebrates the life of contemplation and argues for the value of allowing ourselves to get lost in thought.

Hample recounts her pilgrimages to the shrines of some of history’s great thinkers: two 19th century Irish ladies who famously escaped to the Welsh countryside to live a quiet life of thought and study, Gregor Mendel, Sigmund Freud, and especially Michel de Montaigne, the master of the retreat and the inventor of the essay form, which Hampl has embraced in her own writing. The essay is the revelation of “the inner tick-tock of thought.” Woven throughout the tales of her travels are sparks of her own memories and thoughts of her late husband. The final chapter tells of an idyllic boat trip they took down the Mississippi in a thirty-foot Chris-Craft cabin cruiser that she finds is the best trip of her life.

Though it was not what I was expecting, I found The Art of the Wasted Day to be interesting, thought-provoking and worth my time after all.

If you’re looking for a good story, the best one I’ve read recently is The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins, 2021). This novel came very quickly after Erdrich’s Pulitzer Prize winner, The Night Watchman, and it is the product of her pandemic year. It’s basically a ghost story, set in Erdrich’s own bookstore in St. Paul, Birch Bark Books. Erdrich herself appears as a minor character, which is fun. The quirky main character and first-person narrator is Tookie, a Native American rehabilitated ex-convict who is a dedicated reader and longtime employee of the bookstore. We learn a lot about the book business in this story; it’s also filled with book recommendations and at the end of the book, we find several pages of lists of Tookie’s favorite books,

Births

organized in categories such as “Short Perfect Novels, Indigenous Lives, and Sublime Books.”

One of Tookie’s main problems is that a regular customer of the store has died, and her ghost continues to visit the store. It starts with footsteps and book re-organizing, but then turns more sinister. Only Tookie can sense her, but she can’t figure out what the ghost needs, and Tookie, who has become terrified, has to enlist the help of co-workers to help solve the problem.

Then the pandemic hits. This may be one of the first works of fiction to address the Covid-19 pandemic and describe its repercussions on individual lives and on communities. Erdrich does a good job of portraying how our awareness of the presence of the virus gradually dawned on us until we were suddenly in lockdown and terrified. And then, remember that this story is taking place in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in the spring of 2020, George Floyd was killed not far from the book store. Again, Erdrich is masterful in her handling of the events and emotions that were aroused in that place, as her characters are swept up in the chaos.

This absorbing book is part ghost story, part social realism, verging on creative nonfiction.

Maureen Corrigan of NPR calls it “a deceptively big novel,” that is “essential fiction for a take on the times we’re going through.”

As I write, I am halfway through Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Shuffle (Doubleday, 2021). Whitehead is the Pulitzer and National Book Award winning author of The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys. This new book, and Whitehead’s eighth novel, is evidence of his versatility. It’s a crime novel with a charming protagonist, and a break from the darkness of the previous two books.

The hero, Ray Carney, is a young family man who owns a furniture business on 125th Street, just down from the Apollo Theater. He dreams of raising himself to the upper middle class of Harlem, with a home on Riverside Drive.

He is witty and philosophical, but steeped in self-deception. The furniture store serves as a small-scale fence for stolen goods like TV’s and

jewelry, and Carney tells himself that he is “only slightly bent when it comes to being crooked.”

In the first of three parts, Ray is drawn against his will into taking part in a robbery of the Hotel Theresa, “The Waldorf of Harlem,” and this triggers the action from there on in. The novel is also telling a deeper story of the historical world of Harlem of the 1960s and the prospects for Black Americans in the North. Whitehead is very good at creating characters who inspire a reader’s affection, and I am enjoying the story so far. It’s fine writing and great material.

I hope one of these books sparks your interest, Enjoy the rest of your summer.

Passings

Sponsors

Ronald S. Holway

Henry Lafayette Bressett

4-1-2022

Lori Robin Reynolds

Caleb Joseph Lynch

5-1-2022

Zephyr Joseph Renaud.

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Carolyn Mayo Brown & Gregory Brown Len Oppenheim

3-26-2022

Tonia & Whit Wheeler

5-9-2022

Cheryl Wilfong & Bill McKim

5-22-2022

Bill Schmidt

12 • Summer, 2022 • Views of Dummerston PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Mailed From Zip Code 05346 Permit No. 61

change Service REquested

NAMES & TIMES & NUMBERS Senior Lunches: Evening Star Grange, 2nd and 4th Wednesday • Reservations for in-house or take-out meals • Call 254-1138 by 6 PM Tuesday, leave message The Front Porch Forum: online at www.frontporchforum.com

Community Center Jean Momaney 802-254-9212 Conservation Commission Web site: www.dummerstonconservation.com Dummerston Cares Message line & Fuel Assistance 802-257-5800, email: info@dummerstoncares.org, web site: wwwdummerstoncares.org Dummerston School 802-254-2733 Web site www.dummerston.wsesu.org Fire Chief Rick Looman, 802-258-1731 Fire Warden Ted Glabach, 802-384-6994 Deputy Fire Warden Allen Pike, 802-258-0100 Lydia Taft Pratt Library 802-258-9878 Hours: Tue. 2-6; Wed. 1-5; Thu. 1-5; Sat. 10–1 Web site: library.dummerston.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/dummerstonlibrary email: dummerstonvtlibrary@gmail.com Vermont Theatre Company 802-258-1344

Calendar Photographs Needed

Do you have a photo of somewhere in Dummerston?

The Historical Society is seeking photos for the 2023 Scenes of Dummerston Calendar.

All photos must be horizontal and have no identifiable people.

Please send photos to Jody Normandeau at: jodydvt@gmail.com. If your photo is selected, you will receive a free calendar.

Evening Star Grange Carol Lynch 802-254-2517 or mrgjb@sover.net Meals on Wheels Cynthia Fisher, 802-257-1236 Selectboard selectboard@dummerston.org Senior Solutions Carol Lynch, 802-254-2517 Springfield Office 800-642-5119 Town Garage Lee Chamberlin, 802-254-2411 Town Office Laurie Frechette, 802-257-1496 email: townclerk@dummerston.org Veterans Assistance Contact Dummerston Cares message line or email Views of Dummerston views@viewsofdummerston.org WSESU 802-254-3730 Websites: Official Town www.dummerston.org Municipal Calendar http://calendar.dummerston.org Local Interest www.dummerston.com

Dummerston Meetings Please note that these meetings will not be taking place at their usual locations. Please refer to the town web site, www.Dummerston.org, for updated information.

Town Meetings Selectboard

Every other Wednesday

Planning Commission 1st Tuesday

6:00 pm 6:30 pm

Conservation Commission 6:00 pm 2nd Thursday

Energy Committee 1st Monday

6:00 pm

Development Review Board7:00 pm 3rd Tuesday at the town office

Community Center

7:00 pm

PTFO

6:00 pm

WSESD

6:00 pm

1st Monday at the Community Center

3rd Thurs. at the Dummerston School Library 2nd & 4th Tuesdays, revolving locations

Dummerston School Leadership Council 1st Thursday

Historical Society

7:30 pm

3rd Thursday of Jan./April/July/Oct. at the Dummerston Historical Society

Senior Congregate Meal

Information/reservations:Grange 802-254-1138