This Week’s News
Brandon SB revises budget for 3rd vote: spending down 0.5% but tax revenue up 2.5%
In a special meeting on Monday evening, the Brandon Selectboard unanimously approved a revised FY2025 budget that reduces spending overall by 0.5% (less than 1%) while increasing the amount to be raised by taxes by 2.5%, both figures in comparison to the current year’s levels.
Canyon the duckie arrested for assault against July 4th competitor
No one thought it could happen here in Brandon: a crime of such depravity that it defies comprehension. A young, virile specimen of a duckie was viciously attacked in order to eliminate him as competition in the July 4th Duckie Race in Brandon, leaving the once-strapping bird wondering if he’ll ever paddle again.
Relations to the Otherwise: an interview with VT’s newest Poet Laureate, Bianca Stone of Brandon
The Olympian god Apollo has a deep resumé, including the god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the sun and light, and even poetry—not among the highlights, however, are Braggart and Spurned Lover.
Brandon Artists Guild marks 25 years with a nod to its roots: painted pigs
Renowned artist and Brandon resident Warren Kimble made a huge splash in the 1990s putting his distinctive twist on 19th-century folk-art styles, creating a whimsical world of white New England houses and wildly proportioned farm animals. One of those animals turned out to have more significance in his life, and to Brandon as a whole, than he probably anticipated: the pig.
Photos of the Week
Sports
Meet young Vermont falconer, Kristen Lee
Suprisingly, I met Kristen Lee’s red-tailed hawk, Krueger, in the post office one day. He was there on a visit on Lee’s day off from her postal route.
OV wrestler Isaac Whitney earns title at big N.H. meet
Otter Valley Union High School wrestling made an outstanding showing at the 2025 Annual Minickiello Wrestling Tournament in Keene, N.H., on Saturday.
OV’s Lucas Politano signs deal to play Div I golf for Rutgers U.
The Politano family of Brandon extended its golf dynasty even further last Wednedsay when OV senior Lucas Politano signed a letter of intent to play golf for Division I Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Otter Valley puts up a fight, but loses in Championship game to powerhouse Woodstock
The Otter Valley football team made an unanticipated trip to the Vermont Division 3 championship game but lost 65–14 to a fast and dominating Woodstock team that featured 13 seniors.
OV football stuns BFA Fairfax; will play division championship
Last Saturday, in a show of outstanding football, the Otter Valley Otters defeated the BFA Fairfax Bullets in a show of stellar offense and gutsy defense. On a raw day with occasional sleet, a crowd of 300 showed up in Fairfax to witness the semifinal game which looked to be a sure thing for the Bullets, who were undefeated at 10-0 versus the Otters at 5-4.
