Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) March 3, 2023
It’s time to celebrate!
of our new wheelchair lift! It is now open and available for use. It’s smooth, quiet and easy to use. We’re very excited to make all levels of the Grange Hall accessible to everyone. Pictures below show the Stage Level and Lower Level entrances to the lift. This lift marks a major milestone in making the Hall accessible.
Our gala celebration on Sunday afternoon, March 5 will be a lot of fun–and the price is right!
- Cookies fresh-baked at the Hall by Alison Forrest, 3 kinds: Linzer cookies, Sugar cookies & Brownies, vegan & gluten-free!
- Come see us “cut the ribbon” to officially open the lift!
- Watch a few long-time Grange members and others take ceremonial “First Rides”!
- We’ll have remarks by a few speakers, including Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, Michele Bailey from the VT Arts Council, Berlin Select Board Member David Sawyer
- We will have exhibits from some of the organizations which use our Hall as their “home base” and other community groups, many of whom have presented programs for us in the past. It’s a great chance to learn more about what goes on in the Hall, and in our surrounding communities. We’re calling this part the “Info Fair”.
- Refreshments are being organized by expert baker Alison Forrest, who will be serving fresh-baked cookies, plus coffee and tea in the Lower Level. Would you like to help her serve, and give her a break? Get in touch with her at: feedkidswell@gmail.com.
- In a Grange Hall where the biggest events are contra dances, we will provide “community dancing” with live music by the VT Fiddle Orchestra and calling by Luke Donforth, who knows how to help people of all ages and experience levels to have a good time!
- Mike Stridsberg, who organizes the VT Scholastic Chess tournaments at the Hall twice a year, will set up chess-boards and other games in the Lower Level for those who want a break from dancing, or just like to play games!
Join me on Saturday at the Berlin Pre-Town Meeting
If you don’t mind a little snow, feel free to join me at the Pre-Town Meeting info session, 10:00 AM on Saturday, March 4, at the Berlin Elementary school. There, I’ll be answering questions about the Grange, and our request for a 5 year extension of our exemption from property taxes.
Berlin Town voters will be voting on the extension as Article 3 on the Town Ballot on Tuesday, March 7. As a reader of the Grange Notes, you know that we periodically have to get the support of voters from the Town of Berlin, where we’re located, to extend the exemption from property taxes we first got in 2016.
At the informational Pre-Town Meeting, I’ll also have some displays of pictures of some of the events that happen at our Grange Hall, and information about the 30 rent-free events which were held at the Grange Hall in 2022–well above the 2 per-month minimum that we committed to back in 2016. We will be happy to accommodate more, as the word continues to spread about our great Community Hall. And the whole building is now ADA-accessible!
The ad pictured below is appearing for two weeks in a row in the “World” newspaper, which is widely distributed (for free) in the Central VT area, and is the best way to reach people in print. This ad, which the World’s advertising people worked up along with Patty Giavara says it all!
If you are a Berlin resident, or if you know anyone in Berlin, or meet someone from the Town of Berlin before March 7, please pass on our request for support. We keep the rents affordable by being an all volunteer organization, and by getting exemption from what would otherwise be about $7,000 in property taxes.
Please help us spread the word to Vote Yes on Article 3 on the Town Ballot on March 7!