Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) May 31, 2024

Grange meeting Saturday, June 1 4:30 to 5:00

• Planning our August 3rd barbecue & potluck
• Hearing from our Cooks/Organizers for the October VT State Grange Meeting meals–they will be meeting before our Grange meeting to firm up plans, including produce from local farmers.
• We may have some suggestions for Resolutions to be considered by that October State Grange Meeting.   The State Session considers and votes on resolutions about Grange, local and national issues–there’s a standard format, and will require a working committee to do some word-smithing.
• Chairs:  we started discussion about possible replacements for our folding chairs–see below for the beginnings of the process.

How many of you love the metal folding chairs?

That’s what I thought…not many.   For years we’ve heard that it would be great to have some new chairs, and we’ve started the discussion.  So–at our June 1st meeting we’ll get to try out a sample of one of the many options out there for replacements.   The picture shows one of the less-expensive ones, which the Grange has purchased for us to try out.
This particular chair may not be the most durable option, so I’ll also be presenting information about other choices, and we’ll be talking about what we can afford compared to what will hold up fro a long time, and what other samples we should consider buying to try out.   This will be a significant investment–a few thousand dollars for enough chairs for one of the floors–so we’re not going to rush into a decision; this meeting is just the beginning.

After the meeting–singing and potluck!

We’re looking forward to hearing from one of the musical groups that rehearses at our Grange Hall–the Barre-Tones women’s chorus.   Every Monday evening, for quite a few years, 30-50 members of this group have met in our Main Hall, to rehearse the acapella, 4-part barbershop harmony singing they specialize in.   Quartets from this group can be hired to deliver singing telegrams and singing Valentines locally, but they also travel to competitions twice a year.   You can read about their accomplishments at this spring’s competition in Massachusetts, which qualified them to compete in an international competition in Louisville, KY in November, in this article from the Montpelier Bridge .  We’re proud of having this award-winning group as one of the several musical/performance groups that call our Hall home!
After a presentation about their prowess, they will sing some songs, and will also teach us a simple barbershop “tag”–a line that can be sung in 4 parts–that we can sing along with them, so we can feel a bit of what they feel singing together.
Since we’ll have warmed up our vocal cords by then, we’ll be ready for a Grange Sing-along after that, led by our own Grange Musician and accomplished accompanist Matt Nunnelly.   Come check it out!
After this musical Program, we’ll revive our energies with our monthly Grange Community Potluck starting at 6:00.   Please join us for this (free) event, whether or not you’re able to make it to the meeting or Program.  Below is a picture of a typically bountiful spread at one of our past potlucks.  Bring your friends who have never been to the Grange Hall, and let them get a real taste of the Grange.

Thanks for some new painting!

This picture of the stage at our Hall shows some new painting, thanks to Mary Wheeler, Director of the Vermont Youth Theater company, which has held lots of rehearsals (and a couple of performances) in our Hall over the last few years.  This year, she put new paint on the back wall, and also put a coat of brown paint on the baseboards, as you can see in the picture.  This color should show less of the inevitable wear-and-tear of use than the previous white color did.   Mary previously repainted the ADA bathroom on the Main Floor, too–all of which we really appreciate.
I would like to get all the white baseboards painted with the same Saddle Brown color–and the stage ones could use a 2nd coat.  There are other walls that could use another coat of paint to look really good, also.   Are you a decent painter?   We’ll supply paint, brushes, dropcloths and other supplies if you can commit to a few hours of painting.   We count on Grange members and the hundreds of people who use our beautiful Community Hall to help us keep up with the upkeep, and you’ll get lots of appreciation!   Please reply to this newsletter if you’d like to chip in.

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) July 24, 2023

As everyone knows, Montpelier, Barre and many other towns in Vermont were battered and flooded by the torrential rains from July 10 to 16.

Because of location, we were spared from the devastation.   Even our driveway and parking lot, recently re-graded, escaped virtually unscathed, draining well without creating ravines.
We have offered our excellent well-water to people who live where boil-water notices were put into effect.   The outdoor faucet makes access easy.
A few of us are also making contacts to see if we can raise money for Berlin residents who have suffered losses, and have gotten less publicity than the cities and towns who have been in the news.   We were pleased to hear from Weston’s Mobile Home Park (just south of the Grange) that the changes made there after Tropical Storm Irene had greatly reduced damage.  In particular, the homes were raised up when they were re-installed, so that the homes were not flooded, though water flowed underneath.   We will be sending out information soon about our fund-raising campaign.

Our walls are full of cellulose, and our Grange Hall has never looked better!
Time to celebrate with a picnic!

We had a successful couple of work-days on June 26 & 27th, with just enough people to get the job done–and done well!  See my report and pictures below.
The main message of this edition of Grange Notes is to get you salivating, and marking your calendars for a tasty event:  our nearly-annual Grange barbecue cook-out on the first Saturday in August!   We plan to provide a couple of grills, hamburgers, veggie-burgers and hot dogs of various kinds.   We invite everyone to join us, and to bring side-dishes of all kinds!    The Grange has always attracted people who like to eat, and this has always been a popular event.  Like so many things, this has been interrupted by the pandemic, and we’re glad to get it back on the schedule this year!
We plan to set up grilles and tables on the North gable end of the Grange Hall, which keeps away the afternoon sun (we are hoping for less rain than we’ve all seen recently, of course!).  And this year we can enjoy looking at the fresh paint on that North end, as well as the rest of the Grange Hall.   This whole event will be a chance to celebrate the renewal of our Hall over the past few years.   As we get closer, I’ll list all the projects that have happened since the last outdoor cook-out–in 2019!  For now, I’ll just include a couple of photos from “B.C.”  of happy people eating below.
Bring your friends:  We’re always happy to have new folks visit the Grange Hall, and get a better sense of what a great facility it is.   A barbecue is a great attraction!

         Here’s the current schedule for that evening:
5:00:  Set-up and cooking begin:  volunteers will be setting up at least one gas grille and a charcoal grille, setting up tables, putting out plates/glasses/silverware.   Want to help out?   Please send an email to me!
6:00:  Time to eat:  We’ll have the main meal ready to eat–which means we will have cooks producing items from the grilles, and you-all will have brought salads, dips, chips, breads, soups, dals and any other side-dishes to share.
7:00:  Time to start cleaning up:  we will be bringing dishes downstairs to start washing up, putting away cooking supplies, etc.   We have a couple of volunteers signed up already, want to join them?   Please send an email to me!

It was cellulose time!

It’s been a while since this adventure with insulating the walls of the Grange’s Main Hall happened on June 26 & 27, but we’ll get the benefits for years.   Thanks to Bill Hulstrunk (seen below in the green shirt, blowing cellulose into the wall) bringing his blower and his considerable expertise, and just enough volunteers, we got it done.
Those volunteers included Marisa Keller, seen drilling 3″ holes into the walls just above the benches.   Since she works for Capstone doing just this sort of work, she and Bill shared the work of pushing the hose from the blower all the way up to the top of the wall, and all the way down to the bottom, to dense-pack the cellulose.  Kurt Giavara fed the packages of cellulose (some of which I picked up in my red EV) into the hopper to be chopped up and blown through the hose.   Various people did things like removing art and to unscrew the acoustic panels over the windows, and Noah Harrison arrived in the afternoon to screw them back into place after the insulation was in.  I made wood trim strips, painted the same color as the walls to cover the 3″ holes.  When you come for the August 5th BBQ Potluck, you can admire the trim–and the rest of the work we’ve done on the Hall.
         On the next day, we unloaded the BarreTones and the Dance storage closets, drilled holes and insulated the exterior walls of those.   Patty Giavara arrived to help that whole day, including pounding in 3″ wood plugs in those areas, unloading and re-loading the closets with me.  Betty Copeland was our late-day cleanup helper, when we really needed some fresh energy!   Cleaning up all the gray, woolly cellulose was a significant part of the work.
In the hot weather that has been so much a part of the weather, the cellulose has noticeably helped to slow down the rate at which the Grange Hall warms up; we are confident that it will do equally well in saving us heating fuel in the winter.   As people like you who read the Grange Notes already know, Bill Hulstrunk helped us insulate the attic in 2006 and the North gable end in 2017, and we insulated the basement in 2020, so getting the walls done completes our “envelope”!  We really appreciate Bill’s knowledge, and his willingness to volunteer a lot of time to get this work done over many years!

Another volunteer opportunity:  Fall Festival at the State Grange Center

On the 2nd Saturday in September, the annual Fall Festival will be put on at the Grange Center in Brookfield.   The day will be filled with contests of various sorts–everything from judging of produce, crafts and other items, to intense competition throwing cast iron frying pans and rolling pins.   The State Grange is still seeking volunteer judges for many categories–get in touch if you’d like to help out!
The festivities will continue in the evening with a dinner, and then dancing!   I have recruited Susan Reid to organize musicians (she’s the Assistant Director of the VT Fiddle Orchestra, among other things), and Liz Benjamin has agreed to call some basic dances.  We could use some contra dancers to encourage the State Grange folks who will be at the Festival to join in the dancing.   Interested in helping out on Sept. 9th?   Send me an email!

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) December 28, 2022

The holiday storm knocked out our power, but no harm done

We know that many people lost power in the storm of Thursday and Friday of last week, and have suffered much more than the Grange Hall.   We are grateful that our good insulation, and the water-management we have done has kept any damage from happening to the Hall.
The Grange’s power went out around 1:00 PM on Friday, 12/23, and was not restored until Saturday mid-afternoon.  On Friday I got a notification that the Grange Wi-Fi was down, and knew that was likely the power going off.  I visited the Hall early on Saturday morning, and was very pleased to find that the temperature in the upstairs Hall was still 50 degrees.  I was at least equally relieved to find that no sign of water coming in to the lower level was visible.  Clearly, our 2020 project to put in drainage in the lower level, plus installing very good insulation and air-sealing there paid off–the large amount of rain on frozen ground, which in past years meant that many gallons of water came in, did not cause any problems.
After finding out that the power was back on, I went back and found that the heat was back on, the Wi-Fi working, and all was good.  The only “repair” I had to make was to re-set the timer which turns the roadside sign lights on before dusk.
We hope that all of our many Grange members and friends will have their power back on, if it hasn’t happened yet!

Berlin signatures:  submitted and approved!

On Tuesday, 12/20, I was able to deliver 171 signatures on the petition forms to the office of the Berlin Town Clerk.  After the office checked them, I was told on Thursday that we had “significantly more” verified signatures than the requirement, so we are on the ballot for the March 1, 2023 Town Meeting!
As we get closer, we’ll be appealing for as many Berlin residents as possible to attend the Town Meeting, as there will be discussion and a vote there on extending our full exemption from property taxes for 5 years!   I will also be attending the informational pre-Town Meeting to answer questions and discuss with any interested folks.
Thanks to the Grange members and Grange Hall users who helped us get all those signatures!   We couldn’t do it without you!

Getting ready for construction!

We’re doing prep work for our next big project, the wheelchair platform lift that will be installed in the ADA foyer/stage area of the Main Floor, and in the “back end” of the Lower Level.   The pictures show some of the prep:

• After the KT&P bins of clothes/shoes/toys/books were set out on Dec. 9th, volunteers moved the 8′ long metal & particle-board shelves into the “alcove” area of the Lower Level.   In the top picture, new volunteer Prince plus long-time volunteers Sue & John Morris and yours truly carefully pick up one of the shelf units.
• Moving the shelves out of their former home behind a partition wall leaves space for where the bottom of the lift “hoistway” will be installed.
• The relocated shelves were filled up with the KT&P bins after the 12/10 edition.  This will be their temporary home until they can be moved to a new location once the lift is in place
• And we received the building permit for the project from the State Fire Marshal’s office!   Assistant Fire Marshal Stan Baranowski has worked with us to make sure we follow safety rules and building code requirements.  We have consistently found that conferring early with the Fire Marshals has made our projects better, and avoided later problems.

• Licensed electricians ARJ Electric have started re-routing wiring this week, to make it easy for…
• Carpentry contractor Stan Carlson to begin building the hoistway on Jan. 2nd!
• Outside of Stan’s construction hours (8 AM to 5 PM, M-F) the site will be secured, with plywood blocking access, so that evening and weekend events can proceed safely.
• The platform lift parts are in the warehouse of the local dealer/installer, ready to be installed when the hoistway is ready.

• Stan has made a “mockup” of the raised railings required by the Fire Marshal around the “Old Entrance” porch; we will need to decide on just how to meet the requirement.
• We will post updates periodically!

Helping families get happy with our first “Family Weekend” events!

November Grange meeting report: Posted!

In the last Grange Notes, I posted a brief report of the program presented by Liz Medina, Executive Director of the VT Labor Council, AFL-CIO.   I’ve now posted a more complete set of notes, plus posting a Zoom recording of Liz’s PowerPoint presentation and the discussion on the Grange website, on the 12/3/22 Calendar listing for the program.   Check them out when you get a chance!

End of the year donations:  we’re grateful!

Grange Notes readers probably know that every year, the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall sends out a “Fall Appeal” to support their work helping the Grange.   Working closely and cooperatively with the Grange organization, the Friends have been a vital part of making major improvements in the Grange Hall–including the 2020 project of water-mitigation and insulation that protected our Hall during the recent power outage described above.  The FCCGH has received quite a few donations in this year’s appeal, and we’re really grateful!   Seeing how many people support us makes it clear that keeping this place going is important to a lot of folks, and inspires us all to keep working on the projects.
If you can help the FCCGH to help the Grange Hall, we’ll use the money wisely!  To see the Fall Appeal letter sent out by the Friends, click here.   It also describes our “Project Uplift” to install a wheelchair/platform lift in the Hall.  We appreciate any gift, of whatever size fits your budget!   And donations to the FCCGH, which is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit, are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law; you’ll receive a thank-you and a record for your contribution.  You can see descriptions of previous FCCGH projects, and donate via Paypal on the Donate page of the Grange website.
Thanks to everyone who is “giving us a lift” this year!

We’re in the Blog!

Back in October, Efficiency Vermont contacted us to see if we would help them write an article about our installation of a pellet furnace last spring, which has been working well this winter.   We received a $3,000 rebate from EVT, and another $3,000 rebate from their sister organization, the Clean Energy Development Fund, for the pellet tank.  Combined with a low-interest loan from the VT State Grange, and a substantial anonymous donation, we were able to afford to pay the higher cost of the pellet boiler, compared to replacing the old oil furnace with a newer one.   This means that not only did we substantially reduce our carbon footprint, we are also freed from the volatile price spikes of heating oil.
You can read the article here, on EVT’s website blog.   We’re happy to support EVT in its mission of supporting efficiency increases and fossil fuel use reductions in our state.  And I couldn’t resist the opportunity to use a picture taken by their professional photographer!  It shows Patty Giavara, chair of the FCCGH, and me.   Patty and her husband Kurt Giavara worked closely with me to research our options, virtually meet with EVT’s consultant, and make the recommendation to the Grange meeting that approved the new furnace investment.