Richford Library's Bulletin Board Keeps Growing — And So Does One Bilingual Exchange

RICHFORD, Vermont — Colette Aubin-Roy hasn't hammered anything yet.

The Richford Public Library staff member said Sunday evening that she has identified a section of wall near the periodicals shelf as a candidate for a third community board — an overflow from the overflow, after a painted drywall panel pressed into service beside the original cork board has itself begun to fill with notes.

"I want to watch it for a few more days," Aubin-Roy said. "If the pace holds through the week, then I'll think about it."

She is characteristically unhurried about the decision. The boards, she noted, have a way of signaling what they need.

What caught her attention most on Sunday wasn't the volume of new notes, but one small cluster near the center of the drywall panel: a question, written in French, answered two pins over in English. That exchange has since drawn two further additions — neither of them, she said, from anyone she recognized.

She did not describe the contents of the notes.

"It has its own life now," Aubin-Roy said. "That's when you know something is real."