PLAINFIELD – To kick off the year, the Plainfield Co-Op announced their move to the Route 2 Plainfield Hardware location from their long-time village building. The merger of the two businesses combined grocery and hardware offerings.
Plainfield Arts presented an afternoon of music with songwriter Spencer Lewis and Vermont banjoist Pappy Biondo, Sunday, Feb. 16., the beginning of its 2025 Concert Series.
March 4 town meeting day saw the community preparing for the future; residents voted 130-30 to pass Article 13, which proposed the beginnings of a solution to the housing shortage: a reserve fund dedicated to village expansion. The fund would go toward new development “by acquiring” land between East Hill Road and Main Street.
Caledonia Central School District budgets for Twinfield Union School District and Cabot School passed in Australian balloting, March 4. Twinfield’s budget of $8,402,577 will result in per pupil education spending of $13,814
On April 2, in Plainfield, the Vermont State Police received a report of a domestic disturbance involving Nathaniel Cliche, of East Montpelier. While at the scene, troopers from the Berlin Barracks found a stolen camper belonging to Karl Bissex, of Plainfield. Cliche was found shortly after and placed under arrest for possession of stolen property. Cliche was brought to the Berlin Barracks for processing.
In May, the Cutler Memorial Library presented “Powwow Pastel Paintings,” a new body of work by Susan Ross Grimaldi. The exhibition opened with a reception on Friday, May 9 and remained on view through August 23.
The Celtic fusion band, Cantrip, performed live on May 9, at the Plainfield Opera House.
Discussion at the May 27 select board meeting veered into derelict housing and rabid raccoons for well over half an hour.
June began with a free public forum and workshops for households having persons with disabilities, chronic illness or debilitating old age who want to be prepared for flood or fire evacuation. Sheltering will be available at the Plainfield Town Hall.
Central Vermont Community Radio celebrated 52 years of WGDR and 15 of WGDH at a birthday party, June 7, with food, drinks, DJs and music. In a recent blog post, WGDR-WGDH Station Manager Liu Mulvaney-Stanak announced, “The Vermont legislature just approved $150,000 in one-time funding for the ten community radio stations in Vermont. This is a direct result of your advocacy on behalf of the difference WGDR & WGDH makes in your everyday lives. Especially given federal funding trends and the impact on state funding, this is a really, really big deal.”
The Plainfield Farmers Market took place June 27.
Residents came together, July 28, to discuss Plainfield’s future, part of a three-part process directed by community organization Plainfield Forward. In an effort to engage area residents in identifying important priorities for the town’s future. Over 100 attendees gathered at the historic Haybarn Theatre for a town-wide brainstorming session. The Green Mountain Shakespeare Festival presented “Woman to Woman: Two-Woman Scenes from Shakespeare,” conceived by Tom Blachly, and featuring Savannah Yates and Maeve McCurdy, July 31 in the Greatwood Dining Hall on The Creative Campus at Goddard.
July 10 passed uneventfully as flood mitigation work continued throughout the summer. Residents came together, July 28, to discuss Plainfield’s future, part of a three-part process directed by community organization Plainfield Forward. In an effort to engage area residents in identifying important priorities for the town’s future, over a 100 attendees gathered at the historic Haybarn Theatre for a town-wide brainstorming session.
Alice Howe and Freebo presented an outdoor concert on August 6 from the porch of Grace United Methodist Church.
“The Taming of the Shrew” was presented by the Green Mountain Shakespeare Festival from August 23 to 30, under the direction of Virginia Monte at the Haybarn Theatre on The Creative Campus at Goddard. A prix fixe Elizabethan-themed meal was served before the curtain by Master Chef Zack Fugazy.
September kicked off with Old Home Days, a farmers market and community meal, as well as a street fair and other community activities.
Living Systems, a three-part author series hosted by Cutler Memorial Library, began September 13.
The four-piece Birdhouse Band with Andrew Koehler, Mavis MacNeil, Roy MacNeil and Annie Rowell played a set of Beatles tunes, original songs, and more, instead of the planned Abbey Road performance, September 20, at the Plainfield Opera House, due to an unexpected medical event impacting one of the band members.
October 1, at approximately 7:23 a.m., the Vermont State Police received several nonemergent phone calls from 42-year-old Cormick Cantwell, in which he harassed and threatened emergency dispatchers. Troopers from the Berlin Barracks responded and determined that Cantwell violated several of his active conditions of release and acted disorderly. Cantwell was arrested for Violation of Conditions of Release and Disorderly Conduct By Phone and transported to the Berlin Barracks for processing.
The Goddard College alumni reunion took place from October 10 to 13.
Select board members signed off on plans for new bridges over Great Brook at Mill Street and Brook Road at their October 14 meeting. The Mill Street bridge washed out in 2024 and the Brook Road bridge trapped debris, flooding the village
In November, town of Plainfield staff announced that helicopter flyovers would occur over the Great Brook and Winooski River collecting LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data as part of a study of the river. The study is being funded and managed by the state of Vermont.
A one-year operating grant was awarded to Central Vermont Community Radio Corporation for $5,000 to support operating and administrative costs.
The Vermont Council on the Arts awarded artist development grants to local artists and organizations including Genese Grill of Plainfield for $2,000 to support the purchase of image licenses for use in the first English-language biography of Austrian Modernist Robert Musil for Yale University Press.
A Bollywood-themed dance party was held at the Cutler Memorial Library as a fundraiser on November 9
On Tuesday, Nov. 11, residents voted at the Plainfield Municipal Building on a $600,000 bond to purchase land for the Village Expansion project and a $149 million bond to build a new Central Vermont Career Center. Both bonds were defeated by voters.
Lynne Hanson, “Canada’s Queen of Americana,” performed in concert on Sunday, Nov. 16 at the Plainfield Opera House.
The final report of the East Village Expansion Advisory Committee (EVEAC) was approved in a 10-0 vote at its December 3 meeting, after which the committee voted to recommend to the select board that that meeting be its last.
Thursday, Dec. 18, Plainfield’s Hazard Mitigation Committee hosted a presentation by the State of Vermont and their contracted river engineering firm SLR International, at the Plainfield Town Hall.
December 19 and 20, a Haybarn Theatre event, Combustible Cabaret’s Holiday Happening, said it “promises cardboard puppet chaos, ballyhoo, burlesque, drag and live music to stir up your seasonal celebration.” The 18 and over events featured cocktails and refreshments courtesy of The Haybarn Restaurant.
Raymonda Parchment is a Hardwick Gazette reporter. She recently graduated from Vermont State University - Castleton with a Bachelor’s Degree in English. She is a strong supporter of freedom of speech, and the right to publish information, opinions, and ideas without censorship or restraint. She is a lifelong lover of the written word, and is excited to join the team as a staff member.
