March will be a very busy month in Brattleboro with presidential primary elections, two Representative Town Meetings, two informational meetings, and changes in the Selectboard’s schedule. In order to make the schedule clear for the public, attached are copies of the March meetings – in chronological order and by category.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
Guilford Center Stage continues into its second year with spring and fall productions of plays with strong connections to Guilford, continuing its mission to present place-based theater on the stage at Broad Brook Grange. The new theater project debuted last fall with a production of the comedy, Tourists Accommodated, by Vermont author, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, who often visited Guilford.
A pair of one-acts by Guilford playwright Michael Nethercott opens the 2016 season in early June. At the other end of the season, Charles W. Henry, who was born in Guilford in 1850, will be represented by his only known extant play, performed on the stage with the theater curtains which he painted around 1900.
The Town of Brattleboro is looking for citizens to serve on the following committees and boards:
Agricultural Advisory Board
Arts Committee
ADA Advisory Committee Conservation Commission
Development Review Board (Alternate)
Energy Committee Fence Viewers (by statute, must be legal voters of the Town)
Honor Roll Planning Commission
Senior Solutions Advisory Council SEVCA Board
The River Gallery School is offering a class on book making.
Writers and others who want to learn how to create a physical book using basic book binding equipment.
This class will be made up of a series of smaller technique-specific workshops related to book arts. Along with making paste paper, marbled paper and decorative bookcloth, students will learn how to make books with exposed-bindings, soft covers and hard covers.
Students will also be encouraged to explore sculptural bindings and content driven book structures. The class starts March 25, 2016 and goes to May 20, 2016. It will meet Fridays, from 9:30 to Noon. The class coasts $280. The teacher is Briony Morrow-Cribs. Her website is www.brionymorrow-cribbs.com
Brattleboro, Vt. – Gallery Walk returns this Friday to liven up the downtown and a few satellite locations within a short drive of Main Street. There are 31 listed venues, many with meet-the-artist receptions.
Official Gallery Walk hours are 5:30 to 8:30, though most venues are open earlier and several remain open later into the evening. Patrons are encouraged to begin their artistic explorations a little early this Friday and stop on the way into town at The Marina Restaurant off Putney Road, where refreshments are offered to Walk patrons from 5 to 6:30. Coming from the west, consider stopping at C. X. Silver Gallery at 814 Western Ave., open 4 to 6:30.
WKVT and Brattleboro Community Television will co-produce a candidate’s forum on Thursday, February 11 for voters to learn more about the three candidates vying for two seats on the Brattleboro Selectboard.
Current Chair David Gartenstein, former chair Richard DeGray and businessman Avery Schwenk are all seeking election to one-year terms when Brattleboro residents go to the polls on Tuesday, March 1. No other elected position in the town has more than one candidate.
Next Stage Arts Project will honor the late David Bowie on Friday, February 5, showing ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDER FROM MARS (1973), at 7:00pm, plus Bowie music videos. Costumes welcome!
Documentarian D.A. Pennebaker focuses his lens on a 1973 concert by David Bowie, who performs under the moniker Ziggy Stardust with his glam-rock backing band, the Spiders From Mars. While some backstage footage of the theatrical singer-songwriter is featured, the majority of the film is devoted to the music played onstage, which includes hits, album cuts and covers of Rolling Stones and Velvet Underground songs. Bowie also shocks fans by announcing his intention to drop the Stardust persona.
Brattleboro, VT. Brattleboro Area Hospice will offer a Seven Week Bereavement Support Group for adults begins on February 10th and will meet each Wednesday from 5:00-6:30 pm, ending March 23rd. The group is free of charge and open to anyone in the community grieving the death loss of a loved one, no matter when or where the loss occurred.
Bereavement Support Groups offer a safe, mutually supportive environment for sharing experiences through discussion, readings, simple activities, and suggestions for moving through grief. This group will meet at the hospice office at 191 Canal St. in Brattleboro. No prior connection with hospice is necessary in order to participate. The group size is limited to 8 people. Please call Connie Baxter, group facilitator at (802) 257-0775 x104 for a pre-group appointment if you’re interested in joining.
The Brattleboro Selectboard reviewed a variety of bond options in anticipation of a special Representative Town Meeting deciding the future of Brattleboro’s police facility. No decision was made, but the total cost of 20, 25, and 30 year bonds (including interest payments and funds already borrowed) was provided for comparison.
The board also held a first reading on changes to ordinances that will impact pets and their owners in town. One which may be of particular interest to readers here (hi Zippy) is that police will be able to rescue dogs from hot cars. Other changes include new rules for “dangerous” animals and more clarity in the rules and appeals process.
Early/absentee ballots for the Presidential Primary and Annual Town and Town School District election to be held on March 1, are now available in the Brattleboro town clerk’s office. Anyone wishing to vote prior to March 1, may apply for an early/absentee ballot until 5:00 p.m. on Monday, February 29.
Early/absentee ballots may be voted in person in the clerk’s office, mailed to the voter by the clerk’s office, picked up by the voter or delivered to the voter’s residence by two justices of the peace. All voted ballots must be received by the clerk before the polls close on election day in order to be counted. Early/absentee ballots remain sealed until election day. Absentee ballot envelopes are opened at the polling place and ballots are processed through vote tabulators in the same manner as those voted in person that day. For more information or to request an early/absentee ballot call 251-8157.
Tech Help is available at Brooks Memorial Library! Cal books half-hour appointments on Mondays between 3-5:00 and 5-6:00.
To book time, contact Cal at (802) 254-5290 x104 or cal@brookslibraryvt.org.
Tech Help with Cal is available every Monday when the library is open. Please note that Brooks Memorial Library is CLOSED for Presidents’ Day on Monday 15 February 2016.
Brooks Memorial Library continues its Vermont Humanities Council program on Latino-Americans with a reading and discussion series ‘Mexican Americans: Experience and Identity.” The series will deal with the experiences of Mexicans living in the United States, from the struggles of migrant farmworkers and day laborers in California to coming of age stories of Chicanos as U.S. citizens. Books are available for checkout at the main circulation desk. Remaining books in the series are: February 17, (Under the Feet of Jesus); March 16, (The Tortilla Curtain); April 20, (Days of Obligation)
Facilitated by Patricia Pedroza Gonzalez Ph.D. who teaches at Keene State College at Keene, NH., Dr. Gonzalez’s international expertise has shaped her research experience and her current teaching involves Chicana/U.S. Latina, and Latin-American Studies, American Studies, Feminisms by Women of Color, and Transnational Education. Her research focus is on politics of knowledge construction and social identities. She is the current Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies Department at Keene State College.
Dartmouth professor Allen Koop will discuss the history of America’s troubled, promising, and unique health care system in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on February 3 at 7 pm. His talk, “The History of Health Care in the US,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and is free and open to the public. Koop will discuss how America’s health care system has been shaped not only by developments in medicine but also by social forces, economics, politics, and historical surprises.
Koop graduated from Dartmouth College and then earned his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He teaches courses in the History Department at Dartmouth College, primarily on 20th century European history and on the American health care system.
iBrattleboro.com remains one of the longest-running citizen-powered news and information sites out there, and we continue to be contacted from people around the country and around the world who are interested in doing similar projects where they live. As I noted a week or so ago, we’ve recently answered questions for someone in a small town in Queensland, Australia, and have been interviewed by hyperlocal activists in the Ukraine.
You might be interested in the Ukrainian project. Yurii Antoshchuk, head of a community media foundation there, got in touch to ask us some questions for publication in Russian and English. We answered their questions, but also asked them about what they were doing there.
So, Iowa speaks. Clinton by a hair, and Trump loses to Cruz with Rubio nipping at his heels.
Vermont’s own Bernie Sanders had a good night, coming within less than half a percentage point with Clinton. Basically, a tie. As one commenter somewhere on the Internet pointed out – Sanders was foiled again by the 1%.
Huckabee, O’Malley, and probably a few others soon, will be bowing out of consideration.
On to our neighbors in New Hampshire.
Please join us at the River Garden during Gallery Walk on Friday, Feb. 5 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. for “Love Local” — an evening of music, art, and celebration of all things local.
Representatives of a variety of area non-profits will be exhibiting — discover what the organizations do, how to obtain services from them, how to participate in their programs, and how to volunteer.
Local singer-songwriter-pianist Hannah Hoffman will be entertaining with her unique vocal style, “an edgy soulfulness reminiscent of Janis Joplin meets songbird.”
Selectboard Candidates’ Forum
The next Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast will be held Friday, February 12, 2016 at the Gibson Aiken Center, downstairs, hosted by Senior Meals. Doors open at 7:30am.
Brattleboro Selectboard candidates will give brief presentations and be available for questions:
Brattleboro’s Selectboard continued its busy schedule in 2015, convening 39 meetings and focusing on a wide range of projects. Following 1½ years with an interim Town Manager at the helm, 2015 marked the beginning of the tenure of Town Manager Peter Elwell, who transitioned effectively into the Town Manager’s role in January 2015 and has been dedicating himself tirelessly to ensure that the work needed to provide services in Brattleboro is being handled in a professional and efficient manner.
Adoption of new land use regulations is a significant landmark in the life of a town, and Selectboard participated in and developed a comprehensive, inclusive, and transparent process that led to adoption of Brattleboro’s new Zoning and Subdivision regulations in November 2015. This project spanned multiple years and relied on countless hours spent by members of the Planning Department and Planning Commission. It was supported by grant and taxpayer funding, drew on significant work with an outside consultant, and was strengthened by broad input from diverse members of the community. Multiple public meetings and hearings provided extensive information to the public about the new Ordinance. Our new Land Use Regulations should provide the foundation for continued and orderly land use and development that serves the public interest and the public good in Brattleboro during the next generation.
This has been a weird winter. We saw a few snow flakes in October, a bit of snow around the end of December and early January, then almost nothing. Relatives down south are still digging out, though, from their big snow storm.
The temperatures have been relatively mild. As I type it is about 40 degrees out. What little snow was there is turning to water and evaporating.
BCTV channel 8 schedule for the week of 2/1/16
Monday, February 1, 2016
12:00 am Expanding Educational Opportunities During Tough Economic Times
1:30 am Bennington Marijuana Forum: A Public Discussion on the Topic of Marijuana 1/18/16
3:00 am Racial Profiling – A Community Response
5:00 am The Root: Mass Incarceration and Vermont: 1/17/15 Forum
6:14 am SAFSTOR: 1/26/16 – Joe Lynch
