This Week’s News
Brandon Fire District seeks voter approval for new water tank
Back in 1878, Brandon hired an engineering firm from Pennsylvania to dig a trench, by hand, from Fern Lake to the village, at a cost of $40,000 (approximately $1.1m today).
Brandon firefighters continue their rescue training
More than forty firefighters and backcountry rescue volunteers met at the Rochester office of the U.S. Forest Service last Saturday.
Hard Tellin’: How to reinvigorate unpopular family holiday traditions
This Christmas will mark the 18th year that I have been forcing my kids to make homemade gifts for each other.
Names lost in Vermont, Part 14: Preedom and Rabtoy/Robeston
My recent research on the McGee family pulled me into the perplexing story of Angeline, wife of Lewis McGee of Chittenden, Vermont.
I worked for a crook (and lent money to another)
In the fall of 1945, I worked for a crook. I was a high-school junior that year (Middlebury High School, Class of ‘47) who was always looking to make some extra money.
Photos of the Week
Sports
OV beats Mill River in quarterfinal, 12-6
The third-seeded Otter Valley football team outlasted visiting No. 6 Mill River, 12-6, on Saturday in a Division III quarterfinal and will play No. 2 Fairfax in a semifinal this coming Saturday.
Proctor girls soccer shoots for 11th straight trip to finals
Going into the girls Division IV soccer playoffs, the question around the state is whether anyone can challenge two-time defending champions, the Proctor Phantoms.
‘Trash-talk’ allegedly used racial slur at OV/MR game
RNESU Superintendent Jeanné Collins released a statement on Monday, Nov. 1 referring to an alleged incident at the OVUHS-Mill River High School football game in which players may have used racial slurs in an escalated instance of trash-talking among the players, Collins said.
OV field hockey beats Fair Haven, 7-0, to earn No. 4 seed in Division II playoffs
The Otter Valley field hockey team earned the No. 4 seed in Division II after a successful regular season that concluded late last week. The Otters will open their title quest on Friday.
Field hockey love
A couple of weeks ago, an out-of-town sports team came to Brandon to donate a day of free labor. Brandon’s economic development and recreation director Bill Moore welcomed the help and put the Castleton University field hockey team to work moving a big pile of woodchips at the Seminary Hill Park playground and painting picnic tables at Estabrook Park.

