Chicken Barbecue Supper

A chicken barbecue supper to benefit the Dummerston Community Center will be served Saturday, July 31st, from 5:00-7:00 p.m. at the Evening Star Grange in Dummerston Center.

The menu includes half a barbecued chicken, corn on the cob, assorted salads, pickles, rolls, beverage, and vanilla ice-cream with homemade hot fudge sauce. Eat in or take-out. Adults $10.00, children under 12 $5.00. For information please call 254-9212 or 254-5048. Take out orders can be ordered at 254-1138! Raffle tickets will be on sale for a chainsaw-carved bear and many other prizes. The Community Center is a non-profit organization.

Vote early!

Vermont makes it easy to vote early, whether it's for the upcoming August 24th primaries or for the November general elections. The procedure really couldn't be much easier: just download this form, fill it out, and get it back to the Town Clerk. You can fax, e-mail, or mail it in. That form will take care of the 2010 elections - you can opt for August, November, or both.

Even though the form is self-explanatory, the Vermont Secretary of State's office has more complete information, including guidelines for simply phoning in your request. Take a look at this information for more details.

Live Feed from the Deepwater Horizon

BP's live feed from the Deepwater Horizon gusher (hardly a "spill" or a "leak"!) is available by clicking on this link. See the containment effort live, as it happens...

Health Care Reform and Vermont

Representative Mike Mrowicki has put together a white paper on how the Federal Health Care Reform Program could impact our state and its residents. He includes links of interest.

Check out the report right here. The always-available Mike welcomes your thoughts and comments.

Jordan White Deploys to Afghanistan

An early-morning ceremony at UVM's Gutterson Fieldhouse marked the deployment of units of the Vermont National Guard. The Sunday (1/10) service officially began the Guard's journey to their mission in Afghanistan.

Dummerston's Jordan White (Dummerston '02, BUHS '06) was among the soldiers being honored. Also honored at the ceremony were departing troops' families and loved ones, including Jordan's dad Steve, mom Gretchen, and sister Colby.

The Whites are briefly quoted in a story published in the Times Argus. We keep Jordan in our thoughts and prayers, and wish her well until we see her smiling face again.

Stay safe, Jordan! Godspeed...

Dummerston's proposed Town Plan

The 2009 revisions to Dummerston's Town Plan continue to be discussed. Comments that have already been contributed will certainly make the document a better product, one that reflects the sensibilities of our town's citizens.
 
Read the plan right here, then take part in the continuing discussions that will hash out the fine points of the plan. Have a comment? Send it to planning (at) dummerston.org and selectboard (at) dummerston.org to be heard.

Cohabitation in the Twenty-First Century

Black bear, East-West Road
photo courtesy Mary Ellen Copeland
The bears are on the move, and it's time to take down those bird feeders! As fascinating as it is to see these impressive animals strolling through your yard, it's never a good thing to train them that approaching people and homes is the quickest way to a great snack.


Well-stocked bird feeders are nothing more than a buffet invitation to bears, and the consequences are never good. Please - remove ALL outdoor food sources, so that the bears' best dining opportunity is back in the woods. Later in the fall the bird feeders can go back out, but for now, bring 'em in!

More tips are available from our friends at Vermont Fish & Wildlife. For extra credit, take a look at their Black Bear Fact Sheet.

And now, for something completely different

Dummerston School recently presented its annual Spring Concert, a wonderful showcase of our students' music and acting talent. Imagine the scene when, at the end of the evening, most of the teachers - and the Principal - took the stage and gave back to the students and their families a little gift of their own!

If you've got a broadband Internet connection, click here for a taste of the excitement that evening. (Note: do NOT click if you've got dialup Internet.)

It's easy to see that the most-fun educators around teach at Dummerston School!

A Trillion Dollars



A billion. A hundred billion. A trillion dollars. Big numbers! What does a trillion bucks look like, though? Go to this page to start to get an idea of a number that big.

E-mail woes?

A distressing number of local folks are reporting BIG problems with the cutover of their Verizon-to-Fairpoint e-mail service. How about a little advice from the trenches?

Since you HAVE to change your e-mail address now, why not go with something that won't be subject to change the NEXT time? A lot of your neighbors have taken the opportunity to switch to a very robust, feature-filled, and free e-mail account from Google.

Google Mail - or, "GMail" - offers you virtually unlimited storage, access to your e-mail from anywhere, and a suite of capabilities that are just too numerous to even start mentioning here. Your address book can be imported to Gmail, and you can even ask it to magically push all of your contacts and calendar changes to that new iPhone!

If you're ready to take control of your e-mail, go to GMail, set up a free account, and take it for a test drive! If you don't care for it, walk away with no regrets.

Sean Moynihan is New Hampshire's Principal of the Year

Former Dummerston School teacher, mentor, and athletic director Sean Moynihan has been named Princpal of the Year in New Hampshire.

Now in his fifth year at the helm of Sunapee Middle/High School, Sean continues to inspire and elevate students to higher achievement. Read the full story here.

Congratulations, Mr. M!

Student Software Special

Really - this is a great deal. Microsoft is once again offering its "Ultimate Steal" deal on the top-of-the-line version of Microsoft Office. If you have an ".edu" e-mail address, get this software for $59.95. You'll download the software, so DON'T try this on a dialup connection. Also, make sure to backup your software to CD once you download it! Click right here to check it out. This is significantly cheaper than even the "Home and Student" version, on sale, with rebates, etc.

Evening Star Grange

Ever wonder what's happening at Dummerston's version of Madison Square Garden? Now you can take a look at the online calendar that Ruth Barton is building. No hard hat required...

Highway Travel S-t-r-e-t-c-h

The Vermont Information Center Division publishes a handly little guide called "Park Bench Yoga". It's designed to help visitors loosen up their muscles after their long trek to our corner of the world. The exercises look like they'd also be just the thing for recovering after a long flight, though certainly not possible whilst in your "cozy" seat! Take a look: Park Bench Yoga. The file is 1.4MB, and it'll print wonderfully to a regular 8 1/2 by 11 page.

Antivirus update time!

Those of you who have been using the free version of AVG Antivirus should be updated to Version 8 by now - otherwise, your virus definitions will no longer be kept current.   If you haven't yet installed Version 8 (which is still free for individuals, by the way!), read on.

If you're unsure as to which version you're running, open AVG, click on "Information", then click on "About AVG Free".   If it shows you've got program version eight-point-something, you're good.   If not, click here, download that puppy, and install it now.   Then go back to your homes and go about your normal business.   There's nothing more to see here.