This Week’s News
Brandon passes budget on first try
In a marked contrast to last year’s drawn-out budget woes, Brandon voters approved the proposed 2025-2026 budget on the first attempt by almost a 2-to-1 margin.
Ethier, Haylon, and Reniche-Smith prevail in Brandon race
After a particularly crowded race, with six candidates vying for three available seats, Ralph Ethier, Jeff Haylon and Cecil Reniche-Smith will join the Brandon Selectboard this month.
5th officer to leave Brandon PD since December
Another Brandon PD officer, Corporal Michael VonSchleusingen, has tendered his resignation, bringing to 5 the number of officers that have left Brandon PD since December.
Names lost in Vermont, Part 44: Poro, Shoro, Gallipo, and Sharrow
The first three surnames, all ending with “o,” represent modified spellings from their original Québec names. Remarkably, all three families hail with the throng of émigrés from St. Hyacinthe who settled in our area.
An evening of short plays comes to Otter Valley this weekend
This coming weekend, Otter Valley Union High School welcomes Walking Stick Theatre Company’s annual production of short plays (also known as “The One-Acts”).
Photos of the Week
Sports
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.
Cosmos, Otters embody sportsmanship
This past Saturday, the Otter Valley field hockey team met visiting Springfield in which both teams came out as winners by seeing close-up what good sportsmanship means.