Texas Senator Ted Cruz has announced his campaign to become our next president:
“I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America, and that is why today I am announcing I am running for president of the United States.”
He appears to be the first official major party candidate.
I recently learned that Hanne Steinmeyer had passed on.
I met Hanne through the Estey Organ Museum. Her husband Georg was an active member, and she would often assist at events, helping with food, drink, decorations or crowd control. I would often run into her at some point during an event to sit, talk, and sip some wine. Hanne was funny and smart, and retained her German accent.
Lise and I once went with Hanne and Georg to Mass MOCA. On the drive we got to learn a bit about her early years.
Welcome. It’s a lovely March 21st, 2015. It’s grey, cold, and snowing. Town Meeting Representatives have made their way to the south end of town for the annual Representative Town Meeting.
We’ll be doing ongoing updates throughout the day. As they begin, Moderator Lawrin Crispe is going through rules and some announcements, including a moment of silence for Dick Guthrie and Jesse Corum.
Schools goes first. We’ll have more for you soon.
(Apologies in advance for typing errors and spelling mistakes.)
In 1986 Robin Williams star had risen and he taped the following performance at the Met in NYC.
It seems to be an accurate representation of what people most enjoyed about him to that point – a manic genius. Part of that may have been some the cocaine he was known to be doing, but it was mostly a real talent for laser-quick improv, free-association, and ability to mimic and caricature.
In preparation for Brattleboro’s Representative Town Meeting, here is the officially warned agenda for said meeting. The amounts in Article 23 has been changing, and the text of the currently expected motion is also included below.
Each year the schedule alternates, and this year the schools will have the first items up for discussion and vote.
You can watch on BCTV. As per the poll results, you can also tune in here for a live blog of the day’s events. The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. We’ll get going here shortly thereafter, once the opening ceremonies and reminder of rules is out of the way.
How best to repair the Green Street retaining wall was a big topic for the Brattleboro Selectboard at their regular Tuesday meeting. Some intriguing options led to strong opinions before consensus was reached.
The board also did some planning to learn about planning, resulting in scheduling a series of meetings to highlight the changes coming to Brattleboro’s land use regulations. Some new energy efficiency efforts are now underway, departmental staffing level reviews have been replaced by a comprehensive staffing review, appointees were appointed, and more.
On March 16, 1888, The Phoenix ran the following report on the Great Blizzard of 1888, which had happened just a few days earlier.
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Brattleboro’s Experience with a Dakota Blizzard.
40 in. of Snow in a 90-mile Gale.
Sights, Scenes and Incidents in Brattleboro on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Repairs to the Green Street retaining wall and the Elliot Street bridge will be front and center at the next regular meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard.
The board will also take up, again, a discussion of Property Assesed Clean Energy districts, will have second reading and public hearings for two amended ordinances, make appointments, assign Representative Town Meeting duties, and more.
Meetings are in the Municipal Center on Main Street. You can attend in person, comment, and bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.
I just read that VPR’s southern Vermont correspondent, Susan Keese, passed away.
I’ve known Susan for many years, after first meeting her to talk about things going on at the Estey Organ Museum. Being a radio producer, her medium was sound, and stories that had interesting sounds or music being played were often of interest to her and her listeners.
She got very interested in the 2005 EsteyFest, a gathering of reed organ enthusiasts, many of whom brought instruments with them.
Over the years, whenever I had a potential story that included good sounds, I’d make sure she knew about it.
BCTV Ch.8 schedule for the week of 3/9/15
Monday, March 9, 2015
12:00 am Vote for Vermont – Gun Control Legislation – 3/2/15
12:30 am Burlington’s 150th Birthday Celebration 2/21/15
2:00 am Sierra Leone’s Refugee All-Stars Concert
4:12 am TED Talks: Nadine Burke Harris: How Childhood Trauma Affects Health for a Lifetime
4:30 am West Brattleboro Economic Development: 2/23/15 Forum
You probably know Patton Oswalt from TV or movie roles. I thought he did a great job as the voice of Remy for Ratatouille, for example, and as the assistant deputy mayor in the Reno 911 movie.
His comedy takes on popular culture, comics, religion and atheism, and social issues. This show is from just a few years ago, titled Finest Hour.
Ringling Bros is going to end the era of elephants performing in their circuses in the near future.
I have mixed feelings about this, given where we are in history. Elephant population has dropped significantly, so much that they could become extinct within decades. Hundreds are killed each day for ivory, meat, and trophy.
I like elephants and would hope we don’t eliminate them from the planet. I don’t want to see them abused, either.
I worry that freeing them from circuses and zoos won’t be enough to protect them. That is, I worry we are trading some good feelings about ending abuse at a circus, when wealthy hunters may just kill them all anyway.
The Selectboard has found a way, they think, to keep the municipal tax rate the same as last year. A new dog park is anticipated to join the skatepark at the top of Living Memorial Park. There’s a new financial and budget plan in the works for the town, and new zoning is also underway.
The press, however, abandoned this meeting when there were election results to chase, leaving the board to lament a total lack of reporting, other than BCTV, of important issues.
Read on for the full report of the over four hour meeting.
All candidates elected. All ballot measures defeated.
Details later.
Those who follow This Day In History on a regular basis might recall a couple of mentions of members of the community rehearsing to perform as cards for an upcoming entertaining exhibition of “Living Whist.” Well, you will be pleased to know that the event was a success.
Below you’ll find the almost complete account of the event as told in the Phoenix on March 3, 1895. (The scanned newspaper was torn in one place, so I copied as much as was available.)
If we have any whist players, perhaps the game could be explained a bit?
A member of marching band and the math club. A basketball player. A member of the Air Force. Sinbad has been all of these things, but he is best known for comedy.
His style is very clean. I can almost avoid giving the warning for bad language with his show, in which he often comes across as a big kid, or maybe a nutty uncle. He seems like he would be fun to invite to a party.
A new dog park for Brattleboro? It will be up for discussion at the next regular Tuesday meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard, to be held in the BCTV studios to make room for Election Day activities on the second floor of the Municipal Center.
The board will hear legal opinions on bonds and bids, hear about the new zoning ordinances being planned, continue with decisons relating to Pay As You Throw, and will discuss assessing penalties and/or suing Brattleboro businesses to collect the business license fees.
You can participate by attending in person, or you can watch on BCTV. We’ll have the full account here the day after.
Questions were sent to all three candidates running for Selectboard. As of Friday afternoon, neither Donna Macomber nor John Allen has replied.
If either answers the questions, we’ll post them here for the enlightenment of voters.
The Federal Communications Commission voted today to regulate broadband under Title II of the Communications Act. In ordinary speak, this is Net Neutrality. It eliminates threats of a multi-tiered system, where certain bandwidth costs more than other bandwidth depending on what you want to access.
The actual rules will be published in the near future, but the impact is a good one for anyone who has, or is wanting to start, a site on the internet. Your site will remain as accessible as all others.
David Gartenstein is running for a one-year seat on the Brattleboro Selectboard. We asked him some questions, and his answers follow. Election day is Tuesday, March 3rd.
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– What lessons would you say you have you learned since joining the board?
Serving as a member of the Selectboard, and as Chair, have reinforced for me the vital importance of ensuring that everyone is heard with respect. We face many competing priorities in Brattleboro, and our goal should be to achieve what is best for the town and its residents given our limited resources.
