Town News

Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast Invitation

Municipal Philanthropy *
changing the taxation paradigm

* philanthropy –  the disposition or active effort to promote the happiness and well-being of others; practical benevolence, now esp. as expressed by the generous donation of money to good causes.  O.E.D. 

The next Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast is planned for Friday, April 17, 2015 at the Gibson Aiken Center, downstairs, hosted by Senior Meals. Doors open at 7:30am.

The Brattleboro Selectboard begins April with quite a few large projects which will, of course, be discussed at their next regular Tuesday meeting at the Municipal Center on Main Street. You can participate in person, or follow along via you favorite forms of local media.

If you do, you’ll be treated to discussions of a new fire alarm system for the Municipal Center, an overview of newly proposed zoning districts, insight into a comprehensive review of town operations and long term financial planning project, sewer contracts, Selectboard goals and rules of conduct, the probability of a potential PACE program, and more. You can also bring up other itmes not on the agenda during public participation.

The Brattleboro Energy Committee will meet on Monday, April 6, 2015 at 5:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

The Brattleboro Arts Committee will meet on Tuesday, April 7, 2015 at 4:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

The Brattleboro ADA Advisory Committee will meet on Friday, April 10, 2015 at 10:00am at Marlboro College Graduate Center in the VCIL Conference Room.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

On Thursday, April 9^th at 7:00 PM the West Brattleboro Association (WBA) is hosting a meeting to discuss ways to spruce up the West Brattleboro village streetscape. Called a Charrette, this meeting will provide a forum in which stakeholders collaborate in a creative design process. It will be held  in the Melrose Terrace
Community Room.

All residents are invited to talk about such topics as where to place new plantings, whether to place public sculpture and/or book exchange boxes, and a multitude of other street enhancing ideas. Representatives from
the Brattleboro Planning Services Department, Windham Regional Commission and Brattleboro Department of Public Works will help facilitate the meeting. For more information on this meeting, call Michael Bosworth at 258-6475.

Please see the notes of the March 20th Breakfast below. 

Also, note this week:  

• The next meeting place for “Coffee with a Cop” will be at the Brattleboro Food Co-op, 2 Main St., on Thursday, April 2, from 8 to 10 a.m. Residents are invited to stop by and learn more about what the department is doing in Brattleboro’s neighborhoods. Officers Ryan Washburn and Adam Pelock are scheduled to attend. Those with questions in advance may reach them at 802-257-7950.
  

We’re just about ready to put a town-wide mailing out on the new PAYT program  — which will start June 29th.  The guide will have a ton of information about all aspects of the residential waste stream — Pay-As-You-Throw; curbside compost; recycling; hazardous waste, leaf and yard debris and bulky waste.  Also included will be dates of four public meetings to inform our residents about PAYT and two curbside cart distribution days.

Brattleboro dog and wolf-hybrid licenses are due on or before April 1. Vermont dogs and wolf-hybrids 6 months of age and older must be licensed on or before April 1. For dogs not previously licensed in Brattleboro, a first-time license must be obtained in person from the Town Clerk’s office. Licenses being renewed may be processed in the Town Clerk’s office, through the mail or online at www.brattleboro.org.

Vaccination against rabies is required by Vermont Statutes before licensing. A current vaccination means:

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.)

On Thursday, March 26^th, the West Brattleboro Association (WBA) is hosting a discussion with the Brattleboro Police Department about recent property break-ins. It will be held at 7:00 PM, in the Hayes Court Community Room on Garfield Drive.

All residents are invited to pose questions to the police and get pointers on how best to avoid future break-ins. This will also be an opportunity for neighbors to suggest ideas to other neighbors and/or to ask questions of or get clarifications from the Police Department. It is important to understand that the police in attendance will not be able to report on any ongoing investigations other than in very general terms.

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.

The Brattleboro Citizen Police Communications Committee (CPCC) will meet on Monday, March 23, 2015 at 5:30pm at Brooks Memorial Library in the community room

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

The Brattleboro Tree Advisory Committee will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 at 7:00pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

The Brattleboro Traffic Safety Committee meeting previously scheduled on March 24 has been CANCELLED.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Monday, March 23, 2015 at 5:15pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

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.

Saturday, March 28, 2015, marks the final week for the 9th season of the Winter Farmers’ Market.

It is also the 8th Annual CSA Fair hosted at Post Oil Solutions’ Winter Farmers’ Market.  We expect to have close to a dozen CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) represented along with our regular market vendor line-up, and a special guest from New Leaf CSA!

Take this opportunity to do your CSA research and pick your farmer for 2015! You will find farms with weekly CSA shares for vegetables, fruit, flowers and more.  Some offer deliveries to central pick-up locations while many invite you to visit their farms each week and get to know their operation.  Some farms even invite you into their fields to lend a hand in picking the weeks harvest.  So join a CSA.  It’s a great way to support local agriculture and the local economy!

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.

The Vermont Comedy Divas —the only all-female, touring stand-up comedy troupe in the United States — bring their acclaimed brand of stand-up comedy to the River Garden in a fund-raising event for Strolling of the Heifers on Saturday, April 4 at 8 p.m.  All tickets are $15. Buy online at http://vtdivas.brownpapertickets.com/, or at the River Garden (cash only, Mon-Fri 9-5). Age suggestion: 16+