Selectboard Meeting Notes – Two-Thirds Sworn In, Black Mountain Road Purchase Goes Forward

Town Clerk Annette Cappy presided over the swearing in of two out of three newly-elected Brattleboro Selectboard candidates – David Gartenstein and Kate O’Connor.

The newly sworn-in board members, along with John Allen, chose officers for the coming year. They are the same as last year: David Gartenstein will Chair, Kate O’Connor will be Vice Chair, and David Schoales will be Clerk.

David Schoales was not in attendance. Neither was Dick DeGray. There was no explanation for anyone’s absence.

The three board members who were in place promptly got down to business and took up the matter of approving of exercising the option to buy the property at 62 Black Mountain Road, recently approved as a purchase by Representative Town Meeting members. It will become the new Brattleboro police station.

Town Manager Peter Elwell said that the reason for the quick action was to save five thousand dollars by acting before a contract deadline coming up this Friday.

Chair David Gartenstein asked Elwell a series of questions about the agreement. In response, he was told that the proposed closing date is August 10, which is ten days after financing needs to be in place.

The Town can pull out of the contract for any (or no) reason until July, can have access to the building immediately to begin the Town’s inspection process prior to new design work. The cost of new building systems has already been figured in to the budgets that have been approved, and the Town has enough cash on hand to go through with the purchase if the financing takes longer than expected.

With only three members of the board, all three would need to vote in the affirmative to buy the property. Gartenstein nervously asked if there was “anything he needed to be aware of,” which was a polite way of allowing others to speak up if they planned to vote no. Allen was certainly for it, but O’Connor has expressed reservations at prior meetings.

Everyone laughed.

“It is safe to take a vote,” said O’Connor, answering the semi-unasked question.

With relief, the option to purchase 62 Black Mountain Road was exercised.