cgrotke

What I Heard About The EMS Process in Brattleboro

by cgrotke | Op/Ed

What they said:

We’ll have an open and transparent public process. We want to have a great public process. We need to hear from the public. I’m not hearing enough from the public.  We’ll give the public a chance to weigh in. This will be an open and transparent public process. Your comments are really important.

Then they said:

The website comments are self-selecting and biased. You’ve already spoken for three minutes! You need to wrap it up. So emotional. Those news articles don’t apply to us. No looking back. Look to the future, now!  We know the majority of the public says they want Rescue but we’re voting against it. We have information the public doesn’t have. 

Selectboard Meeting Notes – Brattleboro Fire Department Gets Their EMS Service

by cgrotke | Town News
selectboard sept 19 2023

The Brattleboro Selectboard will be using $1.3+ million of ARPA funds to set up a municipal EMS system. The vote was unanimous to give the emergency medical services ‘contract’ to the Brattleboro Fire Department.

The Town Manager told the board why municipal EMS would be best, the board told the public their decisions as to why they would vote in favor, and then the public was allowed to weigh in with comments.

Brattleboro Selectboard Meeting Agenda and Notes – September 19, 2023

by cgrotke | Town News

The Brattleboro Selectboard has one item on the agenda for discussion at their next regular meeting: whether or not to accept the recommendation of Town staff to proceed with a municipal EMS system, or to support a regional system favored by others in the community. During last week’s public forum, the public was encouraged to attend and comment at this selectboard meeting.

You can bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.

About The Meeting to Reveal Brattleboro EMS Issues

by cgrotke | Police & Fire

Last week, the Brattleboro Selectboard voted to reveal the major issues with Rescue that board members have known about but have not shared with the public. At the time, Chair Ian Goodnow said “It will be a meeting prior to our decision with ample time for public participation,” and “We’ll have a new schedule with plenty of notice for everyone.”

The public meeting to tell the full story from Brattleboro’s point of view took place in the middle of Tuesday’s EMS Public Forum, in comments made by HR Director Sally Nix.

EMS Forum: Brattleboro Municipal Staff Are In Favor of Municipal EMS

by cgrotke | Op/Ed

I took notes for last night’s public… uh, lecture? …spanking?…justifications? ….gaslighting?  It certainly didn’t seem much like a forum on EMS options.

For example, Town Manager John Potter introduced the evening by saying that one goal for the evening was to NOT go into detail of any of the EMS options.  A goal.

This was followed by over an hour of Town staff, many who live on towns served by Rescue, explaining why each and every one of them think the BFD is great!  A member of the public called BS on this pretty quickly, but was ignored.

Below are my notes (cut and pasted from the comments of another thread.):

Brattleboro Selectboard’s EMS Surprise

by cgrotke | Op/Ed

Thursday’s delayed Brattleboro Selectboard meeting almost seemed like a last-minute confessional. In the movie version it would have gone like this:

Board: “Forgive us, voting public, for we have committed the sin of omission.  When we said it was about the one letter from Rescue, it wasn’t the full story…”  (Cue ominous music)

…..

I’m not sure if it was the late hour, or a lack of air conditioning on a hot evening, or an impending sense of guilt, but moments before the the meeting was to wrap up, (with the next steps being a public information session then a board vote on EMS services,) board members revealed that they had other, important information that they have been keeping from the public.

Selectboard Meeting Notes – Former Chair Decides Now Is Time To Reveal Longstanding Fire-Rescue Relationship Issues

by cgrotke | Town News
sb sept 7

Well, well, well. The Brattleboro Selectboard has decided at the last moment that it would be good for them to explain to the public all the secret EMS BFD Rescue relationship information they have known about, information the public has asked them about for over a year and half and the board has remained steadily tight-lipped about. Until now.

Former Chair Liz McLoughlin cracked and said she wouldn’t let Rescue, Inc. control the narrative anymore, and that she wanted a meeting to reveal everything the board knows that the public has been kept in the dark about by her and her fellow board members. Chair Ian Goodnow warned the board that the town attorney told them they should not discuss these secrets with the public, but they voted to hold a special meeting anyway. The plan is to let the public know all the reasons that Rescue and BFD don’t get along.

This throws the public forum and decision-making meeting dates into question.

Selectboard Meeting Notes – The Meeting That Wasn’t

by cgrotke | Town News
sb sept 5

The Brattleboro Selectboard got off to a late start then quickly put their meeting on hold for technical reasons.  Forty-five minutes later, the meeting was postponed until Thursday to give BCTV and Facebook time to fix themselves.

Those interested in discussing EMS and downtown safety will have to wait.

Brattleboro Selectboard Meeting Agenda and Notes – Sept 5, 2023

by cgrotke | Town News

The Brattleboro Selectboard will be spending most of their first regular September meeting discussing town safety and EMS options for Brattleboro. They will review the EMS proposals received and learn about EMS insights from other communities. They’ll also discuss wrapping up the process, holding a public meeting, and then making an EMS decision.

Twelve items are packed into the consent agenda – a possible record, and good thing!  You may bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.

Brattleboro and VT COVID-19 Regional Dashboard Summary – September 2023

by cgrotke | Health

Here’s the September 2023 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them.  Scroll down the new comments for the latest.

VT and MA seem to be doing weekly updates, near the end of the week. Variant updates and NH updates are every two weeks now.

Note that MA stats are the only dashboard that has remained steady and unchanged.  Most reliable of the three, in my humble opinion.

Brattleboro Food Co-op General Manager Leaving

by cgrotke | Business

News from the Co-op… General Manager moving on.

“Dear BFC Shareholders,

I have unexpected news to share. Lee Bradford, our General Manager for the last 15 months, will be leaving his position at the Co-op at the end of August. As he stated clearly in his communication to Co-op staff he is “not leaving the Co-op because of any concerns, questions, regrets, or challenges.” He has indicated that an unforeseen opportunity emerged, one that he feels most strongly compelled to accept for “both professional and several deeply personal reasons.”

Selectboard Meeting Notes – Summer Public EMS Discussions Wrapping Up

by cgrotke | Town News
selectboard aug 15 2023

The Brattleboro Selectboard held their August public EMS discussion at their regular meeting on Tuesday. The board is happy with their progress though one member said that the public doesn’t understand what decisions are to be made,. They will make their EMS decision in late September. Two more public meetings will be held prior.

The Town Manager said the EMS project web page has had over 1600 page views since May. (This site averaged 7,750 pages viewed per day in August for comparison). The board had questions about the Fire Department’s large overtime budget and the public had questions about downtown cameras and sheltering people without homes this winter. 

Brattleboro Selectboard Meeting – Agenda and Notes – August 15, 2023

by cgrotke | Town News

Brattleboro’s Town Manager will suggest changes to the budget process at the next regular meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard. One proposed change to the schedule is intended to increase public participation.

EMS discussions continue, with one more chance for the public to weigh in on aspects of pending EMS decisions. The board will also hear a financial report and will spend nearly $60,000 for a Pool Engineering Feasibility Study.  You can bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.

Brattleboro Selecboard Special Meeting Agenda and Notes

by cgrotke | Town News

The Brattleboro Selectboard will be holding their July moments of public participation for anyone wishing to provide feedback and comments on the EMS plan.

They will also approve new land use regulations, and hear a report on plans for improvements to Living Memorial Park.  You can sometimes bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation, if the Chair allows.

SelectKitten Update

by cgrotke | Pets
14 weeks kitten

When we last left off in mid-June, Bianca and Margot were almost 10 weeks old and fending off a potentially life-threatening virus.  Quick update: everyone did well, which includes these two plus their siblings being fostered elsewhere and their still-wild brother living with Mom in the yard.

It was a long, stressful period for me, though. Nothing was certain. It was a day-by-day, hour-by-hour project until they were in the clear. That meant that I got to spend much of June and early July sitting on a bathroom floor in quarantine with them.  Lise was assigned to keep things as normal as possible for our existing cat in the rest of the house.

I did lots of special cleaning to keep things safe. It was like the start of COVID… washing everything, and not being sure if the virus was lurking about.

Route 30 Feedback

by cgrotke | West River Valley

The road crews are doing a great job overall, given the weather we’ve been having, but now that the Route 30 reclamation project is about to the halfway point or so, I have some feedback from the point of view of a road user.

1. Stickney Brook was the wrong “break point”

They’ve paved a base coat all the way to the Stickney Brook bridge. It would have been better for RT 30 users to have Rt 30 paved with a base coat to the Dummerston covered bridge, another mile down the road.