Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda and Notes – June 2, 2015

At the next meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard, a regular meeting of the board on Tuesday at the Municipal Center, an upodate on Pay As You Throw, a proposal for the Our Town arts grant, and the fourth presentation on new land use regulations will all be given ample time for discussion.

The board will also buy a utility vehicle, hold a second hearing on changes to the Town Plan, and more. You can bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.


A Presidential Candidate – Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum has indicated that he is (still) interested in becoming the president.

“I am proud to stand among you, and for you, the American workers who have sacrificed so much, to announce that I am running for president of the United States.”


Selectboard Special Meeting Notes: Land Use, Part III, Planned Unit Development Templates for Brattleboro

The Brattleboro Selectboard heard the third of four presentations by the Planning Services department regarding new and major changes to Brattleboro’s land use regulations and development process.

This Tuesday’s topic was the new, streamlined Planned Unit Development process, in which developers give up some freedom in exchange for quicker, more certain approval. No developers were at the meeting to offer any opinions, but the board predicted that they would make any objections known before the new rules and regs are adopted. That is, soon.


Weekend Comedy Series: Andy Kaufman

Andy Kaufman is one of those comedy legends that people either love or hate. I love him. Lise hates him.

Here is is, at Carnegie Hall, in 1979, messing with audiences and making them laugh, and wince, and be uncomfortable. Kaufman didn’t consider himself a comedian so much as a prankster and performance artist.

This show has it all. Tony Clifton, little kids, his grandmother on stage, wrestling women, and taking the entire audience out for milk and cookies after the show.


Selectboard Meeting Notes: Our Town Grant Causes Confusion For Board, Arts Community

Oh, yes. Budgets were approved, contracts were signed, and money was granted, but the big discussion at Tuesday’s meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard was about town arts. 

The discussion of a National Endowment for the Arts grant resembled an improvised performance piece at times, as the board learned of the status of the “Our Town” grant through a series of tension-filled monologues, criticisms, and accusations. Numerous views and opinions were expressed, and there was only a sliver of agreement among the players. Nothing was resolved, but many questions were posed, and decisions are required soon.

It was a long meeting, so settle in and get comfortable.


Bush-Clinton ’16

I really wish and save everyone time and money:

“Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received nearly a quarter of a million dollars last year for a speaking engagement on behalf of Academic Partnerships, a for-profit education company in which Jeb Bush held an ownership stake and on whose board he served.”


Weekend Comedy Series: Lewis Black

Lewis Black is a comedian who is very good at being angry. Vein-popping angry, about people, media, and politics. You can consider him a loud-mouthed social critic.

This is “Red, White and Screwed,” a performance at the Warner Theater in Washington, D.C. that was filmed at an HBO special in 2006. He’s in rare form, talking about Bush and Cheney’s 6th year in office. Ahh, the good old days.


Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda and Notes – May 19, 2015

For their fourth weekly meeting in a row, the Brattleboro Selectboard plans to formally adopt the enterprise fund budgets discussed at their previous week’s meeting. The annual contract with Rescue, Inc., a conversation with the Arts Committee, a Town Plan public hearing, and approval of grants will also be topics of conversation and/or action.

You can participate in person at the Municipal Center, and bring up items that aren’t on the agenda during the scheduled public participation portion of the program.


Selectboard Special Meeting Notes: The Town Review, Grant Rejections, & A Really Rural Discussion

The Brattleboro Selectboard held a special meeting Tuesday evening to talk of town operations, enterprise budgets and funds, and to learn more about proposed changes in Brattleboro’s Land Use Regulations. The board also learned of setbacks in funding for the repair of the Green Street retaining wall, and a small grant was applied for, in hopes of helping to create a West Brattleboro connecting trail.


Original Enigma No 3.

Original Enigma No 3., from the May 12, 1837 Phoenix newspaper. (Spoiler alert: the comments will, I expect, have the solution at some point, so avoid them until you’ve solved the enigma, or give up and want to peek.)

….

“I am a word of eleven letters, and am a subject of much conversation.

My 11, 10, 8, and 7 is an appendage belonging to a flower.

My 5, 4 and 3, is an instrument used to stop the mouth.


Weekend Comedy Series: Demetri Martin

“If I…” is the name of the comedy special by Demetri Martin that combines observations, philosophy, and comedy, in form of presentation with slides.

You may not know, this young man was accepted into Harvard Law, but didn’t go. Instead, he went down the path of a legal education at NYU, but became a comedian instead. Probably a wise choice.


Selectboard Meeting Notes: New Brattleboro Zoning Districts

Brattleboro’s new, proposed district boundaries were presented and discussed at the regular meeting of the Selectboard. The presentation was an introduction to new land use regulations the town hopes to adopt later this year.  It is a big, important change for the town, and the board was sad that no one was there to report on it, or even attend. No one!

Also at the meeting, Selectboard goals were approved, distillers will be featured at a Heifer’s event in June, police officers were sworn in to new positions, the ADA Committee is restructured, and more.

Read on for more. And don’t tell the Selectboard! They don’t seem to know we do this.


Four Alarm Fire at Melchin Road

Today the weather service issued warnings about brush fires. It’s dry, windy, and and generally ideal circumstances for a brush fire. And that’s what happened.

Nearby, a brush fire at 493 Melchin Road has grown into a 4 alarm affair, with 50 acres going, according to the mutual aid folks and observers at a fire tower in Massachusetts. Brush trucks and tankers from all over the region have been called in.

The size of the fire has grown considerably. 50 acres at 3:30 p.m; 10-15 acres going closer to 2:30.


Weekend Comedy Series: Chris Rock

Let’s go to D.C. this weekend and see a 1996 show featuring Chris Rock.

The jokes are a bit dated in places — Marion Barry crack jokes, for example. But his insights on race, addiction, violence, education and other issues in America are what the crowds love him for, and much of the routine stands true today. He won two Emmy awards for this show.


Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda and Notes – May 5, 2015

The first of a series of necessary repairs to the Municipal Center will be approved at the next regular Tuesday meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard.

Goals will be adopted, Police will be sworn-in, and the Planning Services Department will give a presentation about changes to Brattleboro’s district boundaries. You can bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation. Watch on BCTV, and read about it here.