None of them is Lance Armstrong, but these road warriors are committed and motivated to ride

Behind the windows of The Bike Hub on Route 5 South next to the Farmer’s Market in Norwich are all the sexy toys that makes the two-wheel spandex crowd go weak in the knees: acres of carbon fiber; curvy, other-worldly frame designs, seemingly inspired by the space shuttle. But the shop offers more than eye candy for the road biker – true to its name, it has become the nexus for a vibrant scene of recreational (if sometimes quite competitive) group rides several times a week throughout the summer and early fall.

At 5:30 on a Wednesday night, a cacophony of beeps can be heard across the parking lot as dozens of GPS devices are reset. Guys – and a few women – of all ages, in loud spandex and varying degrees of fitness, astride bikes ranging from “good enough” to “only the best will do” prepare to embark on a 25 mile ride around the Upper Valley. It’s early in the season, so only about two dozen riders have shown up; later, the group swells to 40-50 riders. Usually, the pack will divide into at least two, sometimes more groups, each riding at its own pace, and riders self-selecting where they want to be. The “A” group consists of a ferocious bunch of riders eager for an opportunity to push themselves and each other to the limit. It’s all in good fun, but not without some blood, sweat and tears at times.

Still, David from Grantham is eager to put the ride and the riders into perspective and dispel some myths while he waits for the rest of the pack to form up. “Honestly, nobody is trying to be Lance Armstrong here,” he says with a laugh and nods of approval from the bikers around him.

Nik Fiore, a regular from Lebanon, describes the dynamic of the group ride this way: “It’s first and foremost a social event that gets each of us out to ride after work at least once a week. Then, once you start riding with a group, they’ll start expecting you to show up, and to be ready to ride at their pace, so suddenly you feel compelled to stay fit between the weekly rides.”

Of course, that level of self-imposed pressure may not be for everyone, and Bill McFadden, who owns the Bike Hub and launched the group rides about five years ago, acknowledges that some may find the format of the Wednesday night ride daunting and intimidating. “Even the slow groups ride fairly fast,” he says, and tools like the activity tracking app, Strava, has made it easier than ever to measure your efforts against your fellow riders and to feel compelled to push harder. McFadden does worry that this may keep some from showing up, but while the shop promotes the ride and offers some support, the group has taken on a life of its own and is not for him to change.

But if the Wednesday night Bike Hub ride is too challenging, other group rides continue to pop up in the area. Some are exclusively for women, others are geared towards those who are new to group riding; still others are established as preparation for the Prouty or some other charity ride.  And, regardless of your level of ambition, skill and equipment, a group ride is a great way to get out on the roads. The Upper Valley Velo group on Google is probably the best place to find one and connect with fellow cyclists.

The Rosemary Littledale Rieser Trail and Sample’s Woods Project

Just in time to savor sunlight filtering through the pine woods and hear the sounds of frogs and birds from a mossy bog and a rushing brook, Norwich will soon have a new trail for walking and observing nature. Thanks to the generosity of 105 members of the community, the Norwich Conservation Commission, and the Rieser children – Abby, Tim, Len and Ken Willis – a conservation easement and designated trail is being added to the 11-acre property that borders Blood Brook, Hopson Road, and nearby Pine Tree Road.

The Rieser family has been an important part of the Norwich landscape since the late Rosemary Littledale Rieser (pictured below) and her esteemed physicist husband Leonard first took up residence in the village of Norwich in 1953. While Leonard immersed himself in academic life and administration at Dartmouth, starting in the Physics Department and progressing to Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Rosemary devoted herself to raising her family, tending to home, vegetable and flower gardens, enjoying the outdoors, and sharing her talents and thoughtfulness through volunteer community activities. She loved walking her dog and interacting with neighbors. Rosemary and Leonard were among the original signers of the Warner Meadows conservation agreement held by the Upper Valley Land Trust (UVLT), and they further demonstrated their commitment to conservation by purchasing and maintaining the adjacent Sample’s Woods parcel beginning in 1965.
Today, a 24 member group owns and maintains the meadow on which a portion of the trail access easement will reside. In the years following Rosemary’s death in 2012, the Rieser children decided to honor their mother’s memory, love of walking, and devotion to Norwich by granting public access to a trail to be designated as “The Rosemary Littledale Rieser Trail”. To guarantee protection of the pine grove, wetlands, ski jump, and ecologically significant brook corridor, a fundraising campaign for $50,000 was organized in late March with a team assembled from local residents and friends of Leonard and Rosemary Rieser, the UVLT, and the Upper Valley Trails Alliance (UVTA). Over six weeks, this hard-working group raised the sum required with enough additional resources to support trail building and stewardship.

While the length of the trail is relatively short, the richness of the area speaks volumes to scenic quality, open space, abundant birdlife, beaver activity, historic significance, and environmental education. During the Earth Day walk and talk presented by UVLT and UVTA, Lindsay Putnam, an environmental educator at the Marion Cross School, explained how students learn, share, and begin to comprehend natural systems through science class outings she leads to the meadow and brook.

Another feature of this special spot is the naturally contoured ski jump, known to former Ford Sayre ski jumpers like Mike Holland, Walter Malmquist, and Buff McLaughry, as Sample’s Jump. Paul Sample, the local painter of familiar scenes around the valley, owned the land prior to the Rieser family and the jump bears his name. Visitors to the woods can view the jump takeoff and landing and imagine themselves flying through the air as many young boys did during the winters of the 50’s and 60’s.

The Rieser family’s 50 year ownership and care of this parcel is exemplary, and it is thanks to their vision for its future and the help of many generous and thoughtful friends and neighbors, that its future status and use will be permanently protected for all of our benefit. Like the Bill Ballard Trail and the Milton Frye Natural Area, it is wonderful to be able to recognize and celebrate a similar conservation spirit, that of Rosemary Rieser, with this very personal and public project. After an anticipated easement closing in late June, information about the trail, its status, and how to access it will be available at uvlt.org and uvtrails.org.

Over two years in the making, “Back to School: Lessons from Norwich’s One-room Schoolhouses” will have its long-awaited premiere this month, with a screening at Wilder Center on Sunday, June 28 at 7:00, and another screening at Marion Cross School in the multipurpose room on Tuesday, June 30 at 7:00.  The screenings will benefit Root Schoolhouse and Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse, with a suggested donation of $10 for adults, $5 for children, and $20 for families.

In the winter of 2013, Boston-based Historic New England, the nation’s oldest, largest, and most comprehensive regional heritage organization, and CATV, the Upper Valley’s local community cable television studio, agreed to make a documentary about the history of Norwich’s one-room schoolhouses.  The groups’ previous project, “Connecting the Threads,” a documentary about AVA Gallery’s history as the H.W. Carter and Sons factory, had been well-received, and they were eager to now tell a Vermont story about great buildings and their transformations, weaving together interviews and historic photos.  CATV director Bob Franzoni suggested Norwich’s schoolhouses, with a focus on the surviving two that were at the time on the cover of Norwich’s town report and would soon be added to the National Register of Historic Places: Beaver Meadow and Root. Over the next two years, ten students who attended Norwich one-room schoolhouses in the 1930s and 1940s were interviewed, along with local experts on one-room schoolhouses, and dozens of historic photos provided by the Norwich Historical Society were identified for use in the documentary.

Excitement within Historic New England about this project grew, so much so that a photo of Root Schoolhouse graced the cover of the winter 2014-15 edition of its membership magazine, the first time a Vermont building had ever been Historic New England’s cover story.  In that article, Ken Turino, the documentary’s director and Historic New England’s Manager of Community Engagement and Exhibitions, writes, “Why do one-room schoolhouses resonate with people today?  Do they remind us of a more rural America with strong local communities?  Is it nostalgia for a simpler, slower pace of life?”

Excitement within Norwich grew as well.  In February 2014, Dan & Whit’s and the Norwich Inn hosted a wine-tasting fundraiser in support of the documentary.  In the fall of 2014, a crowd-source fundraising campaign to help complete the documentary resulted in 38 contributors donating anywhere from $25 to $50; some of these donations came from outside of the Upper Valley.  Thanks to the community’s support, the documentary will include a remarkable soundtrack of original string quartet music composed by Travis Ramsey, the music teacher at Marion Cross School; performed by instructors at the Upper Valley Music Center under the leadership of its director, Ben Van Vliet; and recorded live by Spencer Lewis within the walls of Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse.  The composition is called “Marion’s Morning,” in honor of Marion Cross, a former Union Village one-room schoolhouse teacher who later moved on to the school in the heart of Norwich village.

The completion of the documentary comes at a time when the community’s interest in preserving the schoolhouses is at its peak, no doubt in part due the schoolhouses’ addition to the National Register of Historic Places in the summer of 2013, made possible by the efforts of the Norwich Historic Preservation Commission. Shortly after this designation, Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse launched a major fundraising campaign to re-establish the septic system, plumbing and bathroom and upgrade other areas.  Significant progress has been made thanks to generous grants from the Vermont Arts Council, the Byrne Foundation, Mascoma Savings Bank, Ledyard National Bank, the Norwich Women’s Club, the Norwich Lion’s Club, and Beaver Meadow Chapel Association, and in-kind donations from contractors including Pathways Consulting, Wanner Earthmoving and others.  Many individual donors have contributed and fund raising continues with Beaver Meadow’s annual cocoa mulch sale, concerts and other efforts.  Upcoming improvement plans include building and attached shed repairs, wheelchair accessibility and electrical upgrades.

Meanwhile, the Root District Game Club, which became a 501(c)3 nonprofit last summer, has initiated an $80,000 capital campaign to rebuild its deteriorated foundation, which forced the building’s closing in 2011. In 2014, it received a major boost with a $40,000 matching pledge from the Byrne Foundation, and has also received support from the Norwich Women’s Club, the Norwich Lion’s Club, Vermont Community Foundation, Preservation Trust of Vermont, in-kind donations from Smith & Vansant and Pathways Consulting, and several individual contributions. The Game Club’s campaign still has a long way to go, but they are optimistic that the documentary could help generate the additional financial support it needs.

Helen E. Smith, Root School	Jacquie Teeter-Durkee, Turnpike School
Stanley Wallace, Beaver Meadow School	Alfred DeVaux, Pompanoosuc School

How do we measure whether or not this documentary is a success?  Will it be a success if there is a strong turnout for the two screenings?  Will it be a success if it is broadcast on Vermont Public Television, as “Connecting The Threads” was shown on New Hampshire Public Television?  Will it be a success if it wins an award, as was the case with “Connecting The Threads,” which won the 2013 Leadership in History Award from the American Association for State and Local History?

More important than all of these possibilities, the documentary is already a success because it has given an opportunity for ten people who attended Norwich’s one-room schoolhouses to share their stories.  Historic New England’s Ken Turino says, “Norwich’s one-room schools are now part of the past, but these stories are just as important to the town’s history as the structures themselves.”

Thanks to Dale Somerville, Stanley Teeter, and Jacquie Teeter-Durkee, we will remember Turnpike School, even though it burned down decades ago.  Thanks to Alfred DeVaux and Alma Gray, we will also remember “Pompy,” the Pompanoosuc School, which was long ago converted to a single-family home.  These schools may not have been preserved, but memories of them will be.

Thanks to Stanley Wallace, we will know Beaver Meadow Schoolhouse even better than before for its historic role in Norwich education, as well as for its current and future role as a vibrant gathering place in the Beaver Meadow community.

And thanks to Rockcey Ruby, Dan & Fred Smith, and Helen Smith, we will remember the Root School.

For the members of the Root District Game Club, for the many families who have used the schoolhouse as a community center from 1952 until its reluctant closing, and the current residents of the community surrounding this building, one important measure of the documentary’s impact will be a simple one: did it help save the building? The documentary alone cannot rebuild Root Schoolhouse’s deteriorating foundation and return it to public use.  Hopefully, those who are moved by “Back to School” will respond by supporting the preservation of the building itself, along with its memories.

If you would like to attend a screening of “Back to School,” please contact us at (802) 331-0677, or send an email to rootschoolhouse@gmail.com.

More information about the documentary, including video clips, can be found at our website:  www.rootschoolhouse.org.  You can even follow the film on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/rootschoolhouse.

Norwich locals behind initiatives bringing Upper Valley citizens together online.

Once the meeting house was the place where people would, well, meet, interact, and exchange news and information while discussing community affairs. Twenty odd years ago, along came the internet, enabling you to connect with a new, ethereal community. Remember dial-up? Your computer and landline joining forces, shrieking awkwardly in an attempt to establish a tenuous link that allowed you to exchange some brief messages with others far away? It was revolutionary and otherworldly, but slow and unreliable. And since the connection couldn’t be taken for granted, it was more novelty than productivity. It was also a blow to our sense of belonging to our traditional local community.

Since then, the internet has matured and grown exponentially. Today, (almost) everybody has access to an infinite amount of information and people online; telecommuting is routine, and teachers assign homework to complete online and “hand in” electronically. Everything from banking to shopping is done on the web, and many if not most of our daily social interactions are virtual, rather than real.

The Nuts and Bolts of Getting Us Connected

But all that digital excess is only available if your connection to the internet has kept pace. For many Vermonters, however, connectivity has remained sketchy and slow, leaving them stranded on the far side of “the digital divide” that separates those with access to new technologies from those without. To be clear, that’s not only a developed-versus-developing world issue: the digital divide has been called one of America’s leading economic and civil rights issues, and it affects rural areas, like Vermont, particularly badly.

This was why Governor Shumlin earlier this year reiterated that Vermont’s economy cannot function without sufficient internet access. “It’s no different than the telephone lines and electric lines, the challenge that Governor Aiken faced, back when that was being distributed through poles and wires,” he said of broadband. “I don’t think there’s a more important goal for a small, rural state.”

The state has struggled to achieve that goal, however, and in 2007, enterprising Vermonters took on the challenge to bring broadband to the underserved in East-Central Vermont. By 2010, after a bumpy ride through the great recession, EC Fiber had set up shop in South Royalton, and the company has since extended fiber optic cable – and with it high speed internet – to towns, libraries, companies and private subscribers in off-the-grid places, including parts of Norwich.

Getting community buy-in and gaining the necessary access to utility poles has required EC Fiber’s team to jump through countless hoops, their accomplishment is perhaps more one of financial prowess and negotiating skill than of engineering. With its community ownership and leadership, a team of friendly, local staffers and funding largely from local investors, EC Fiber certainly has more than a touch of modern day co-operative about it. With over 1,000 customers, their feisty business model is working well – so well, in fact, that EC Fiber is being noticed and their approach copied by other rural communities eager to deliver broadband, tired of waiting in vain for the state or commercial providers like Comcast to do so.

In a Norman Rockwell Painting, You’d Ask Your Neighbor

Once the high speed bytes flow freely, the first thing many users do is join the billion or so other users of Facebook, the social media juggernaut that – for better or worse – remains a primary conduit for information and interaction online. Perhaps you get back in touch with a long lost high school classmates or your old pen pal in Peru, but even if a few hundred of them are “friends,” Facebook’s vast network is no real community. As Chance Barnett of Forbes Magazine put it a few years ago, “Just because we connect with a person or company online, it doesn’t mean we have an actual relationship. Real connections are forged under many circumstances, but relationships built in local communities are more important than ever.”

To bring it back down to scale, one option would be to establish a local community in the virtual world. That’s what Chris Healy of Norwich did five years ago, using Facebook’s built-in groups – “The place for small group communication and for people to share their common interests and express their opinion” according to Facebook itself. Chris had already seen the usefulness of such groups as a hockey coach, and he felt an online group could broaden the scope for instant, informal communication between people from different towns in the Upper Valley, on a platform with which they were already familiar.

Chris invited his friends, then let word of mouth (and clicks on mice) do the rest, and today the Upper Valley VT/NH Facebook group has almost six thousand members. It’s mission is for users is to: “Share your experiences, give advice, make referrals with your neighbors. Be nice to each other. Revel in our differences as well as our commonalities. Most of all, share your favorite Upper Valley finds.”

Members post almost anything, really. Live music announcements, requests for recommendations, announcements of yard sales. One member came looking for a “turtle-sitter,” another recently asked:  “Does anyone know who runs the ice cream truck that drives around Lebanon and West Lebanon in the summer time?” Less than five hours later, she had her answer.

“This group is not about selling things,” admonishes Chris in his welcome message on the group’s page. But as the moderator of the group he tries to be hands off, and he rarely has reason to intervene. “It’s somewhat self-policing,” he says. “People have really gotten the spirit of it and taken ownership.” Which may explain where Chris finds the courage to dream about expanding the group to involve more political discussions, hoping that the format would allow people to discuss local matters in a positive and meaningful way, while keeping things respectful.

Civic Participation in the Online Era

Whereas Chris Healy opted to use an existing social media network, Norwich resident, Watt Alexander, and his team at Subtext Media in White River Junction have instead built their own platform – a website called dailyUV.com – to support genuinely local, community-based conversation and connections while avoiding the privacy compromises and problems associated with sites like Facebook.

DailyUV.com began by repurposing the content from the venerable Upper Valley email listservs, but it is evolving into a comprehensive suite of events calendars, marketplaces and interactive hubs of community information.

Rob Gurwitt  (also a Norwich resident) from Subtext Media notes that, even in a small town like Norwich, life has become more complex. “We’re busier, and with few exceptions – like the recent bond debacle – people just don’t have time to show up at a community meeting at 7pm. We saw that at Town Eating Day in Norwich, where we could never get more than a couple of hundred people to turn out. All the same, people do want to be and feel connected and informed, so local government and organizations in cities and small towns all over the country are struggling to figure out how to let people know what’s going on. That’s harder than ever with the barrage of information cluttering every media channel.”

Subtext Media’s approach is to use the internet to bring it all together, lowering the barriers to access information, and presenting curated local content in a more convenient and approachable way.

In Chris Healy’s ideal world, the connections forged online should lead to offline “real world” interactions as well – face-to-face meetings and collaboration on community projects. Rob Gurwitt isn’t convinced that improved access to local information will get more people actively involved in community life. “That remains up to each individual,” he says, but he does hope that the site will help stimulate discussion.

The reason Shumlin and others want all Vermonters connected to broadband is obviously not primarily so they may swap canning recipes with their neighbors. Rather, says Julia Pulidindi of the National League of Cities, “Ultimately, the goal of broadband access is to allow people to take advantage of its potential to improve the user’s experience, whether it’s for business development, improved healthcare, education or recreation.”

The goal is proving elusive, however, and the goalposts keep shifting. The leap from dial-up to even limited broadband like DSL was significant a few years ago, but the FCC recently increased the minimum speed that may properly be considered “broadband,” and as VPR reported in February, by that new standard, thirty percent of Vermonters still lack broadband.

EC Fiber’s Norwich-led team of innovators has taken a grassroots approach to help community members across the digital divide. Bit by bit, they’re connecting them to the online world around which our lives increasingly revolve. Once there, they can use both the dailyUV.com and the Upper Valley Facebook group to discuss matters great and small and share the experiences and insights that make the Upper Valley special. Our little community may be part of a brave new virtual world, but it can still be local.