This Week’s News
Brandon Budget Committee reviews Rec and Highway Depts
The purpose of the workshops is to help finetune the budget that the Selectboard will ultimately put before the citizens of Brandon at Town Meeting in March 2024 for Fiscal Year 2024-2025, which will begin on July 1, 2024 and end on June 30, 2025.
Names lost in Vermont, Part 12: Christmas and Landers
A monument with the name “Christmas” carved at its base in St. Alphonsus Cemetery in Pittsford commands attention. Who was this family?
New books and stories inspire Pittsford children with the Rural Libraries Grant
On November 17th, Pittsford children were treated to storytelling from Duncan McDougall and to brand-new books through a Children’s Literacy Foundation Rural Libraries grant awarded to Maclure Library.
Editorial: Lesson from the past: Words have always mattered
My father’s parents were born in a Polish town called Łuków (roughly “woo-cough”), some 75 miles southeast of Warsaw.
Guest editorial: Hold onto your sobriety during the holiday season
Thanksgiving Eve is also known as Blackout Wednesday, the first heavy drinking weekend of the holiday season.
Photos of the Week
Sports
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.
OV Football wins big in playoffs, moves to state semis
Isaac Whitney had a huge game, gaining 180 yards and scoring 4 touchdowns to lead the Otter Valley football team to a 46–14 playoff win over rival Mill River Saturday night under the new lights at Markowski Field.
Local group proposes multi-town community rec center
On a rainy Sunday afternoon, a bunch of middle-aged friends in Pittsford want to play some pick-up basketball. Or some older folks want to continue their daily exercise walks when the snow is knee deep outside in winter. Or some kids want to play volleyball but the school gyms are all closed. Where can they go?
‘Game Seekers’: local hunters use online platforms to reach an audience
Fall in Vermont means foliage, cider, pumpkins, and, for a good number of our neighbors, hunting. Every year, people across the state pick up their bows and rifles and head out into the woods, hoping to bag a big-antlered buck or a fat, feathered turkey.

