Cavendish Update 3/4/11 Election/News/History/Events

The 3/4/11 Cavendish Update Contains the Following
1. Cavendish Election Results
2. Cavendish Related News
3. The Cavendish Fletcher Community Library Presents: Dinner and a Movie
4. Free Community Concert with Brent Buswell
5. The Bard Returns to Proctorsville!
6. Cavendish Semiquincentennial: Women’s Role in Town Meeting

1. Cavendish Election Results
All three school budgets (Green Mountain Union High School, Cavendish Town Elementary School and Riverside Technical Valley Center) were passed by Cavendish voters. Both Riverside and GMUS budgets, which require voting in several towns, passed. All town and school elected positions were unopposed, with the exception of the one year term for Select board. Four candidates were running for two slots. The voters selected Ed Garrow and Scott Ranney, the latter of whom narrowly defeated Dan Churchill by four votes. A video of Town Meeting is now on-line at LPC-TV.

2. Cavendish Related News
Vt. telecom group wants review of $2 million grant: The head of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority is asking the Attorney General's office to review the propriety of an unannounced $2 million grant to the private telecommunications company Sovernet. The $2 million state grant to Sovernet is intended to lower the firm's cost of building a 770-mile high-speed fiber network in rural Vermont. The VTA was created by the Legislature in 2007 to help bring broadband to all corners of the state. State Sen. Vincent Illuzzi says the grant was not available to companies other than Sovernet. The Burlington Free Press says that in a Sunday letter to Assistant Attorney General William Griffin, VTA Chairman Steven Shepard said he didn't think the grant process was improper, but he's taking the allegations seriously. Associated Press/Burlington Free Press

New poll on town meeting Day: In addition to Senator Bill Doyle’s Town Meeting survey, which he has been doing for more than four decades, Rep. Sam Young has an on-line survey. Lawmakers are encouraging voters to take both surveys. 60,000 of Doyle's paper ballots were distributed during Tuesday's Town Meeting Day and Representative Young's online version can be found on his website.

Early Doyle Poll Results: Sen. Bill Doyle says he's compiled about 5 percent of the expected total. Some of the initial results show strong support for mandatory minimum sentences for repeat drunk drivers, banning cell phones while driving, confidence in Gov. Peter Shumlin, 4-year terms for governor and expanding Vermont's bottle bill. Doyle expects to have complete results from the survey in about two weeks. WCAX

CVPS Buys Vermont Marble Hydroelectric Facility The state's largest electric utility is buying Vermont Marble's hydroelectric facilities and service territory. The $29 million deal between the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation, the Department of Public Service and the select board in the town of Proctor must still be approved by the Vermont Public Service Board. The deal has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The sale includes four hydroelectric facilities with a capacity to produce 18.5 megawatts of power. WCAX

US Declares Catamounts Extinct: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday declared the eastern cougar to be extinct, confirming a widely held belief among wildlife biologists that native populations of the big cat were wiped out by man a century ago. After a lengthy review, federal officials concluded there are no breeding populations of cougars — also known as pumas, panthers, mountain lions and catamounts — in the eastern United States. Researchers believe the eastern cougar subspecies has probably been extinct since the 1930s. The creature lives on in lore and in places such as the nickname for University of Vermont sports teams -- the Catamounts. Burlington Free Press

3. The Cavendish Fletcher Community Library Presents: Dinner and a Movie
The Cavendish Fletcher Community Library will hold its annual "Dinner and Movie" event on Saturday, March 26 2011 from 1:00-4:00 in the library. The featured movie will be "Under the Tuscan Sun" and will include a generous tasting of food from the book of the same name by Frances Mayes. The program is free to the public but donations are welcome. FMI: Kata at 226-7503.

4. Free Community Concert with Brent Buswell
All are welcome and invited to attend an amazing musical performance on Sunday March 13 at 7:00 pm. Accordionist Brent Buswell will delight people of all ages in a live performance at the Cavendish Baptist Church, located at 2258 Main Street in Cavendish, VT. Light refreshments will be served at the end of the concert.

Brent Buswell enjoys playing a wide variety of music, including: jazz, polkas, Scandinavian, marches, Christian, and American standards. He especially enjoys playing the music of great composers such as Pietro Frosini, Charles Magnante, Pietro Deiro, and many others.

"Extraordinarily talented accordionist Brent Buswell has played piano since age three, when he performed with his grandfather in Ludlow,Vermont, and at the State House in Montpelier. At age twelve his grandfather gave him his first accordion, and he immediately played what he heard on the Lawrence Welk Show... Brent plays a unique, top-of-the-line Italian accordion... Brent's infectiously joyous playing has already attracted many fans; his future is bright." — Nils O. Lundin, Norwell, MA, June 10, 2000.

Since 1998 Brent has been guest performer with the Grammy-winning "Polka King" Jimmy Sturr and his Orchestra. In addition to other television appearances, Brent has been featured on the Sally Jesse Raphael Show.

For more information, please call (802) 226-7131. There is no charge for admission, but a free-will offering will be received.

5. The Bard Returns to Proctorsville!
In 2010 New York actor and Shakespeare aficionado Jamie Ward led a successful "Playing With Shakespeare" weekend in Proctorsville with twenty residents. Two workshops culminated in a homemade Shakespearean performance, complete with skits, songs and audience participation. Ward is returning to do it again with a group of local adults and kids the weekend of March 19 and 20. While the workshops are full, the actors will need an audience for the March 20th performance. Come prepared for an evening of wit, drama, irreverence and fun as participants share their interpretations of the Bard in a no-frills performance directed by Ward. The program, made possible by a grant from the Cavendish Community Fund, will begin at 7:00 at Gethsemane Episcopal Church on Depot St. in Proctorsville. Donations at the door will go toward the church's heating fund.

6. Cavendish Semiquincentennial: Women’s Role in Town Meeting
These posts are made possible by the Cavendish Historical Society and are archived at the Society's blog. March posts relate to the history of Cavendish women in honor of National Women’s History Month.

In 1880 Vermont women finally begin to see change with a new law passed by the legislature giving tax-paying women the right to vote and hold office in school districts. With the establishment of the Vermont Woman Suffrage Association (later changed to the Vermont Equal Suffrage Association) in 1883, a statewide organization now existed and continued to push for female suffrage. The efforts of group members like Annette Parmelee and her determination guaranteed that the woman suffrage issue would remain a much debated topic in the newspapers and legislature. Efforts further paid off in 1900 with the passage of a law allowing women to serve as town treasurers, town librarians, and notaries public.

By 1917, support could no longer be contained and Vermont women gained the right to vote in municipal elections, providing the turning point for women to implement real change across the state. The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution in 1920 gave Vermont women and their sisters nationally full suffrage in state and national elections and also the right to serve in local and national governments. Women in VT Politics; During and Post Suffrage 1840-1940 from the Vermont Women’s History Project

Barbara Kingsbury’s book “Chubb Hill Farm and Cavendish, Vermont: A Family and Town History” relates how Cavendish women were viewed in 1912. “Although the ladies had their own groups and participated fully in the Grange and Farmers’ Club activities with the men, they did not go to the Town Meetings. A 1922 newspaper article in the history of the Sunshine Society, commented that, “In 1912 when the ladies presumed to bring some sunshine into the annual town meeting some of the old guard among the men grumbled at the intrusion and would have none of it. A compromise was effected wherein the ladies might spread their luncheon in the gallery if they would screen off their view of the men below. But that first meal was enough to make the Sunshine dinner welcome at every Town Meeting since…”

It is interesting to note that while there are fewer women in the Vermont Legislator, those that do run have a higher chance of winning then their male counterparts. In 1921, there was one woman in the house and none in the Senate. Today, 36.6% (11) of the Senate is comprised of women (one of whom is Alice Nitka for Windsor County) and 38.6% (58) of the House. In Cavendish, we have no women on the Select Board and only one on the Cavendish Town Elementary School Board.

7. Cavendish Events 3/4-3/11/11
March 4 (Friday): Cavendish Town Meeting will be aired today on LPC-TV. Check www.lpctv.org for time.
• Due to last week’s snowstorm, the Cavendish Black & White Nights film series rescheduled the film “All About Eve” for this evening, 7 pm at the Cavendish Elementary School in Proctorsville. Donations are welcome and homemade cookies are available.

March 5 (Saturday): Mardi Gras Benefit for CCCA at Crows Corner Bakery and Café.. Call Robin at 226-7736 to see if there are still tickets available.

March 8 (Tuesday): Bone Builders Class at the Cavendish Baptist-- Class from 10:15-11:45. FMI: Linda at Green Mountain RSVP & Volunteer Center of Windsor County at (802) 885-2083, or Anne Oakes or Andrew Ohotnicky at (802)228-5236, or Dot Ramsdell at (802)226-7870
• Cavendish Town Meeting will be aired today on LPC-TV. Check www.lpctv.org for time.

March 9 (Wednesday): Okemo Valley Chamber Mixer, 5:30-7:30 pm at Endless Creations Pottery Studio, 442 Elm Street, Chester. FMI: 228-5830

March 10 (Thursday): Bone Builders Class at the Cavendish Baptist-- Class from 10:15-11:45. FMI: Linda at Green Mountain RSVP & Volunteer Center of Windsor County at (802) 885-2083, or Anne Oakes or Andrew Ohotnicky at (802)228-5236, or Dot Ramsdell at (802)226-7870
• Sit & Knit" at the Six Loose Ladies yarn shop, Pollard Building, Proctorsville Green, 2:00 -9:00 PM. Open to knitters, spinners, crocheters, hookers. Free. FMI: 226-7373