Brattleboro Cardiology Awarded Funding for Participation in Pilot Program

by BMH | Health

The Center for Cardiovascular Health at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) was awarded funding of $5,000 from (VITL) for its participation in a pilot program. The pilot provided the Center early access to VITLAccess, which is designed to share patient health information through the Vermont Health Information Exchange (HIE), which is managed by VITL.

VITLAccess is a new, secure web based provider portal that allows healthcare providers to search and view information about their patients who may have received care from healthcare organizations across the state and in the surrounding area. This information includes radiology and lab reports, hospital admission, discharge and transfer summaries, medication history, and other health information. VITLAccess will be offered to all providers across the state beginning in the spring of 2014.

Basin Farm Fire Recovery Effort

by melevav | Activism

We, at the Basin Farm, Westminster, Vermont want to announce the creation of the Basin Farm Fire Relief Effort. Although we, Niflaah and I, no longer live at Basin Farm we are still very much connected to our friends circumstances there. Already many of our friends and former customers of our Harmony Parking Lot Common Loaf Bakery have responded with aid and sympathy.

Latchis Theatre Announces Accessibility Upgrades with New Renovation

by Not Signed In | Business

For Immediate Release– In the ongoing celebration of the newly renovated Latchis Theatre, the Latchis is very pleased to highlight accessibility improvements made to serve people with disabilities. “The Latchis and Latchis Arts are committed to doing the best we can with our historic structure” says Managing Director Gail Nunziata. “The recent campaign gave us the opportunity to make advances.”

Specific wheelchair accessible seating locations with companion seats are now available in clearly marked locations around the hall. One location is permanent, and seven offer flexible wheelchair accessible seating, all with companion seats. While “flexible” means that either theatre seats or wheelchairs may inhabit a space, in most cases the everyday set-up will accommodate wheelchairs.

ALDI First Impressions

by cgrotke | Op/Ed

I dropped by the new ALDI supermarket on Putney Road today. The place was buzzing with people checking out products and prices, and staff were getting used to working in a new building. I had two immediate impressions of the supermarket.

First, the prices were low. Very low. Other supermarkets in the area should be worried about losing people looking for lowest prices. ALDI means business and appears ready to compete.

How low? Can of black beans was 59 cents. Bottles of wine under $5. Chicken breasts for $2.69 a pound. Pineapples for $1.29 each. Milk was $2.29 a gallon. And so on. Anyone looking to pay less will be in here.

Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: Discussion at Brooks Library

by Brooks Memorial Library | Books

Join Vermont Humanities scholar Richard Wizansky for this reading and discussion series which features the shorter works by the great Russian writer, dissident, and former Cavendish, Vermont resident and includes his most read and highly regarded novella as well as several of his famous speeches.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: A Reading and Discussion Series, Thursday, January 09, 2014 04:00pm – 05:30pm

The readings and dates  are: 1/9– One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; 1/16–Matryona’s Home;; 2/13  the 1970 Nobel Lecture; and the 1978 Harvard Class Day Address.

Remembering John Wessel

by cgrotke | Obituaries

I just learned that John Wessel passed away early Tuesday.

I met John through the Estey Organ Museum. He had worked at the Estey Organ Company in the pipe organ department, lived in Esteyville, and continued to build and restore organs after the company closed.

He would drop by the museum often, usually with some helpful criticism of how things were being done or displayed. He caught some errors for us, helped with events, attended everything, and was featured in the museum newsletter. He also helped repair organs and advise the museum on organs in the collection. He participated in round table discussions with other former employees. He also told some amazing stories.

Renaissance Fine Jewerly Raffle Helps Open “The Doorway to Exceptional Care”

by BMH | Health

announced its diamond halo earring raffle raised $895.00 for Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s “Doorway to Exceptional Care” capital campaign.

“The winner was Danielle Lauria,” said Caitlyn Wilkinson, owner of Renaissance Fine Jewelry on Main Street in Brattleboro. “She came in almost every day and bought tickets in both her name and the name of her newborn daughter. And the day after the drawing, Danielle’s husband brought her into the store and we surprised her. She was totally shocked; she couldn’t have been more excited. She even wore them out of the store,” said Wilkinson.

Georgio’s Customers Help Open “The Doorway to Exceptional Care”

by BMH | Health

Georgio’s Pizza and Pasta Restaurant announced fifty two customers participated in its special fund raiser to support the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital Emergency Department renovation and expansion project.

During the month of November, for every pizza sold to a customer presenting a special coupon, Georgio’s made a donation to “The Doorway to Exceptional Care” campaign.

“This is my hospital and I wanted to support the project” said George Leristis, owner of the restaurant located at 419 Canal Street in Brattleboro. “We are happy that we could support the hospital’s efforts to improve its Emergency Department. It is important it remains available for anyone who needs medical care, all day, every day.”

First Wednesday: What If Poor Women Ran the World?

by Brooks Memorial Library | History

Wednesday, January 08, 2014, 7 – 9:00 pm

Labor historian Annelise Orleck tells the story of nine African-American union maids in Las Vegas who challenged welfare cuts and built a long-lasting, vibrant anti-poverty program run by poor mothers.

Sponsored by the Vermont Humanities Council. Funded in part by the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library; the Vermont Department of Libraries; and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Location Brooks Memorial Library Main Room
Contact Info  Jerry Carbone 802-254-5290 jerry@brookslibraryvt.org

Health Care Reform And You: The Patient-Centered Medical Home

by heartsong | Health

You and the Patient-Centered Medical Home: What is it? How does it affect you?

These are open Putney community sessions focusing on how health care reform in Vermont is affecting the way in which health care services are organized and delivered. Come learn about how the Vermont Blueprint for Health, the statewide initiative designed to improve the health of Vermonters, is using a model for health care delivery called the “Patient-Centered Medical Home”, or “PCMH” for short to enhance the way your health care is managed. 

Learn what a PCMH is and what your rights are as a patient receiving care in a PCMH.  Both medical offices in Putney, HeartSong Health in Community and Putney Family Health Care, are now certified PCMHs, all of the BMH medical practices either have become certified as PCMHs or are in the process of becoming certified.   If you receive care in Putney, you are now part of a PCMH.  If you receive care in a BMH practice in Brattleboro, you are, or will soon be, part of a PCMH.  Make sure that you know what this means for you and your family.

Selectboard Meeting Notes: FY15 Budget Nearly Final, How Does 8.7 Cents Strike You?

by cgrotke | Town News

The Brattleboro Selectboard announced their nearly-final budget numbers for FY15. It will cost $16,306,285 to run the town, an increase of about 8.7 cents for taxpayers. Everything was trimmed, but nothing substantial was cut or reduced. As one member said, the can was kicked down the road.

In the good news category, a unique public-private partnership has been formed to save the town large sums of money. Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, SIT, and Harris Hill have offered to help the town relocate communications towers off of Wantastiquet by providing towering locations in town.

The topic of energy audits returned, a plan for a $50,000 energy audit fund was proposed, and a 16 year old asked the board for the right to vote. All this and more below.

Friends of the Library Board Openings

by RobertOeser | Books

The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library Board of Directors is seeking two new Board members.   The mission of the Friends is to support the Library through advocacy, public relations and fundraising to provide the highest quality library services to the community.

 Annually the Friends host three major book sales, produce public concerts, such as last fall’s A Night of Jazz and Dancing with Chris Bakriges Quartet, and community events, most recently a Trivia Contest.  Proceeds from Friends’ productions go to support a wide range of library materials and services including the First Wednesday lecture series, public access computers, Children’s Room resources and events, free museum passes and the purchase of print and digital materials. 

Exploring Brattleboro’s Cultural Landscape: Past, Present, and Future

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

Brattleboro CoreArts Project – Track Two, Session Three

Exploring Brattleboro’s Cultural Landscape: Past, Present, and Future
Saturday, January 11, 2014, 9:30 a.m.-noon
Main Stage, Latchis Theatre

You are invited to join the ongoing discussion about Brattleboro’s arts and culture sector.

For many years, Brattleboro has been lauded as a small community with an outsized profusion of the arts. Many different threads have woven together to form the community we live and work in today. In which ways has the arts and culture sector informed Brattleboro’s personality? What lenses are used to described current trends? Who are the past and present players? What do we need to understand about how the community landscape is formed and subsequently altered? Can we learn from historical trends to nudge creatively at the future?

Wind Chill Advisory Through Wednesday Morning

by cgrotke | Nature

The NWS says there is a Wind Chill Advisory in effect until Wednesday morning:

“A wind chill advisory means that very cold air and strong winds will combine to generate low wind chills. This will result in frost bite and lead to hypothermia if precautions are not taken. If you must venture outdoors…make sure you wear a hat and gloves.

The Mammoth in the Room

by spinoza | Op/Ed

Was it natural selection, maladaptation, or human greed that killed-off the woolly pachyderm? It’s not critical now because the species is gone, and I bring it up only as a metaphor to set the stage for this article.

I don’t like to explain an analogy in advance. There may be implications or reverberations from the imagery that might trump the reference. Suffice it to say, this great and noble beast, who roamed these very hills and valleys is no longer around to give direct evidence of what went wrong.

Which brings me to the topic at hand. Lately I’ve been wondering about the predicament of our elected officials. To whom are they ultimately accountable? Whether the scale is the local school board, or Congress, we see without any deep investigation, affinities to the establishment, or private interests, or the sitting administration, that conflict with those of the voter or constituents.

Antje Duvekot and Seth Glier at Next Stage on Friday, January 10

by Not Signed In | Music

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present a twin bill of award-winning contemporary folk singer/songwriters Antje Duvekot and Seth Glier at Next Stage on Friday, January 10 at 7:30 pm.

Antje Duvekot is a German-born, American-raised singer/songwriter whose songs have been critically praised for their hard-won wisdom, dark-eyed realism and street-smart romanticism. Her bicultural upbringing and relative newness to English have helped shape her unique way with a song, giving her a startlingly original poetic palette. They are the keys to the powerful, even revolutionary, empathy that informs everything she writes. She has won some of the top songwriting awards including the Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition, the Kerrville Folk Festival Best New Folk Award and the Boston Music Award for Outstanding Folk Act.

The Good With The Bad: 2013 in Review

by Lise | Op/Ed

If you asked me at any point during 2013 what kind of year I thought it was, I would have said lousy.  From a personal perspective it was trying to say the least.  Perhaps the brightest spot for me was fulfilling my 2012 New Year’s resolution of launching the new, improved iBrattleboro site on schedule in February 2013 thus marking the site’s 10th anniversary with a decided upgrade.  That felt good.   But personal issues aside, 2013 was an unusually mixed year with surprising news both good and bad.  First the bad.

The Boston Marathon bombing was a depressing incident through and through and while we may never know what really happened there, we can be sure that things like that will happen again. This year saw a continuation of random shootings, in malls, workplaces, and other typically safe places that seemed to pick up steam last year with the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.  Perhaps in time we’ll become desensitized to such events but not yet.