The Brattleboro Select Board voted June 1, 2004 to accept the $300,000 being offered by the Federal Department of Homeland Security. This money is to help educate the local population on the evacuation plans for concerns like tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, chemical spills, and one disaster not one among us can see, taste, smell or feel: radiation.
I have been in town 2.5 years, in the state nearly 8 years, and last week was the first tornado warning I ever encountered. I do not recall a hurricane in this state in the last 7+ years. The evacuation in Putney recently around the paper mill would be considered a chemical spill. We all remember fire drills in school as children.
Even our new newspaper editor remembers being taught by respected teachers that facing the blackboard away from the window in school could protect against the nearby nuclear plant in the event of an accidental release or… worse ( cold war).
Chemical storage and transport throughout the state is a bigger terrorist target (don’t tell anyone) than our beloved 24/7 365/year base-load electrical generating source creating waste that absolutely not one human knows what to do with.
Steidle voted to accept the money. Mayer voted to accept the money. Yager voted to accept the money. Worden was absent and lone Pat D’Angelo voted to not accept the money on grounds that she did not feel comfortable with it.
Does Mr. Steidle, Mayer, or Yager know where this Homeland Security $300,000 is coming from or is it simply newly minted, not making up the massive debt we leave to younger generations? We know our Commander in Chief has been so honest in his dealings with the world on so many issues. We know we all have such trust in the wise choices of our (s) elected (p)Resident. Of course our town fathers welcome the consequences of taking the gift money.
Town manager Remillard claimed that he did have other town wide forums on the local evacuation issues, as he promised in the first and only one in April 2002. The next ones were held at the schools, but concerned activists were not made aware of the meeting(s).
Apparently Mr. Remillard has since decided that public forums where our town leaders actually hear concerns of interested and concerned, non-corporate-funded citizens could raise more issues than they answer.
Sounds like a crime in this post 9-11 Brattleboro to me.
Really, who loses if individuals raise previously unconsidered issues about the inane evacuation plan?
The fewer people speak up on these issues the more the corporate agendas get promoted.
This is why it is important for all to know that the day before our former editor lost her job, Vermont Yankee spokespeople had a talk with the new editor at the Reformer.
Your voice is needed now and always… before it is silenced.
do i dare?- isn't it obvious?...
ps. A previous head of Vermont Emergency Management said to me off the record that really there is no way to properly create a workable plan to protect against a worst case accident that could occur at VY- and he wasn't talking about losing spent fuel...