No. 24 February 2006
POLICE
CHIEF WELCOME
Interim Police Chief Jim Lanctot was sworn in as Thetford's new Police Chief on
January 16, 2006. In witness of town residents and his family, Chief Lanctot
took an oath to serve Thetford and its residents. The Selectboard looks forward
to working with Chief Lanctot.
ROADS
The highway department works hard throughout the year to maintain and preserve
the safety of Thetford's roads. If you have any questions or concerns at any
time, please call Road Foreman, Doug Stone at the Town Garage, 785-4679.
THETFORD
ENERGY COMMITTEE SURVEY AND CFL
The Thetford Energy Committee will be surveying town residents at this year's
town meeting about expanding town carpooling locations and placing about half
of
the town's streetlights on timers to shut them off in the middle of the night,
when there is very little pedestrian or vehicular traffic. In order to
provide residents who are unable to attend town meeting an opportunity to weigh
in, we will place copies of the survey at Town Hall in the week prior to the
March 4th town meeting. Surveys should be filled out and
turned in at Town Hall before March 4th or at the Thetford Energy Committee's
town meeting table.
Also, the TEC will once again be selling high performance, energy efficient
compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) at town meeting. These bulbs use 1/4 the
energy and last 8 times longer than comparable incandescent bulbs, and they
will save you $43 to $72 in electricity over the life of the bulbs. We
will be selling Harmony15 and 25 Watt spiral CFLs - equivalent light to 60 and
100 Watt incandescents. The bulbs will cost residents $3 each, after the
$2 instant coupon from Efficiency Vermont.
Submitted
by Bob Walker
TOWN CLERK NOTES
2006
Election & Voter Information
Deadline for New Applications to the Voter Checklist:
February 27, 2006 at noon
Town offices open from 10:00 a.m. to noon
Deadline to Request Absentee Australian Ballots:
(for yourself, or on behalf of another voter)
March 6, 2006 until 5 pm
Town offices open special hours - 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Annual Town & School Meeting
March 4, 2006 at 9:00 a.m.
Anderson Hall,
Australian Ballot Budget Vote
March 7, 2006
Town Hall
Polls open 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
MIMI’S
TRAIL ENTHUSIASTS
Mimi's Trail is open to non- mechanized users to enjoy a wonderful
hike/snowshoe/cross country ski in Thetford. The trail begins across from
the Elementary School parking lot and goes about 5km to the top of Houghton
Hill.
The trail is possible through the generosity of the landowners who allow the
trail to cross their properties. One of the stipulations when the trail was
created was that trail users
would not park at the Thetford Hill Post Office, at any time, which is a
federal regulation.
Please use and enjoy the trail, but please park either at the Elementary School
(being respectful of parking spaces if school is in session) or at the
Thank you.
Friends of Mimi's Trail
Submitted by Lelia Mellen
TA NOTES
Basketball season is in full swing, and there is at least one game at TA on any
given night. Come cheer on the Thetford Panthers; it's a great way to spend an
evening.
TA students and staff will enjoy their winter break February 20-24th this year,
and the week later is Town Meeting. Can spring be far behind?
Sunday basketball and dodgeball at TA are
happening! The gym is open for basketball every Sunday from 9-noon and
dodgeball from 1-3pm. All ages are welcome. (A small fee is collected.) Keep
moving now till spring!!
Submitted by Wendy Cole
CHOCOLATE -- Food of the Gods
Come learn from Paula Gray about the origins of chocolate, how different types
are made, chocolate's nutritional benefits, and participate in a chocolate
tasting at Peabody Library in Post Mills, on Wednesday, February 8th at 7PM.
Submitted by Margo Nutt
LATHAM LIBRARY
Wireless Internet, Wireless Internet
Yes, LATHAM LIBRARY HAS WIRELESS INTERNET
Please stop by the Latham Library with your laptop and enjoy
the wireless connection.
Library hours are:
Mondays 2:00 - 8:30
Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:00 - 5:00,
Wednesdays and Fridays 10:00 - 5:00,
Saturdays 10:00 - 1:00
Sunday's closed.
We are continually purchasing new releases, DVDs and CD/Books on tape.
Stop by and check us out!
Submitted by Maureen Morse
NATURE NOTES FROM THE CONSERVATION COMMISSION
Live, freeze and not die
One bonus of winter's onset is the disappearance of the myriad insects that
make a day outdoors an endurance test. In fact not only insects but all
cold-blooded creatures vanish as temperatures drop. Yet every spring they
return miraculously, surviving winter's rigor by staying dormant. Unlike
mammals and birds that are active and keep a high body temperature all winter
long, these creatures have evolved ways to protect their unheated bodies from
freeze death.
An animal's body, chemically speaking, is composed of about 95 percent water.
When this water freezes, crystals of ice poke holes in blood vessels and the
membranes of cells and wreak havoc with the intricate structures of life.
Frostbite is a very mild example of what this does to living tissues. On a
whole-body scale the effect is lethal.
In the cold-blooded world of amphibians, many get around this problem by
burrowing into underwater mud or into the ground to depths that do not freeze.
Not so the wood frog, which employs a boldly different strategy. As its name
suggests, this small frog is widespread in woodlands across
To hibernate, wood frogs dig themselves into shallow
depressions under compacted leaf litter, or crawl under logs. With a covering
of snow their temperature can nonetheless drop as low as minus 8 degrees
Centigrade (about 19 degrees F.) Since body freezing starts between minus 0.5
and 3 Centigrade, the frog freezes solid. Sheets of ice form under the skin,
between muscles and around vital organs. About 65 percent of its body turns to
ice, yet the organs, muscles and brain remain undamaged - how?
Firstly, the frog dehydrates its organs, moving the water into the spaces
surrounding them, like the abdominal cavity. However living tissue can only
stand so much dehydration. For additional protection the frog fills its cells
with an antifreeze substance. This combination prevents the cells from
freezing, with ice forming only on the outside of cells. The production of
antifreeze begins when the skin of the frog senses freezing. With this signal
the liver begins to flood the bloodstream with glucose sugar. Soon the glucose
accumulates in cells, raising their glucose levels 50 to 100 times higher than
normal. The frog's blood chemistry also changes so that it clots more readily,
to seal any blood vessels punctured by ice crystals.
What does the wood frog get from this extreme adaptation? The ability to
survive deep winter cold allows them to live right up to the edge of arctic
tundra, where few other amphibians venture. Not tied down to ponds for
hibernation, the wood frog can disperse widely and exploit more habitat. Wood
frogs emerge from hibernation very early and start breeding ahead of other
species because the forest floor warms quickly in spring. In their forest
habitat, wood frogs breed in temporary pools, called vernal pools, where spring
runoff collects in shallow woodland depressions. Being temporary, these pools
do not contain fish, a significant predator of tadpoles, thus enhancing
survival.
However, logging and development in woodlands now pose a threat to vernal
pools, which must remain shaded and cool so as not to dry up before tadpoles
mature in late June. Protection of these important, often hard to recognize
pools, would insure that our wood frogs can continue to live, freeze and not
die.
Submitted by Li Shen
Thetford Conservation Commission
DIVERSITY BOOK GROUP
The
next meeting of the Diversity Book Group will be on Monday, February 13 at
6:30pm when we will be discussing A. J. Verdelle’s The Good Negress.
Latham Library has extra copies of the book, so if you don't have a copy please feel free to check out the book from Latham.
Future Meetings:
Monday, March 13: 6:30 pm
Book: Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
Monday, April 24: 6:30 pm
Book:
Louise Erdrich, The Painted Drum
Submitted by Jo Ann Woodsum
The deadline for submissions is the 20th of each month. Send news including contact name and telephone number to Cathee Clement at 785-2668 or turtlepond@netzero.net.
Please list Thetford Town Newsletter in the subject line.