Your water bill will go up, your sewer bills will go up, the town is buying a $73k car for the fire department, there will be a bit of free parking near the holidays, and a new sculpture park is being preliminarily proposed for the area near BMAC and he Amtrak station. All this and more at Tuesday night’s meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will approve new FY26 budgets for water, sewer and parking rate at their next regular meeting. The parking budget includes options for the possibility of some free parking in December, or perhaps not. It’s up to the board to decide.
They will also buy a new fire car, plan a retreat, and hear about plans to improve the Depot Street area of town. You can bring up other items on the agenda during public participation.
The Brattleboro Selectboard heard initial presentations about Water & Sewer and Parking budgets for FY26. This included a detailed discussion of Sunday parking, whether free parking might be better in some cases to encourage shoppers and 1% LOST income, and whether parking costs should be charged based on how popular a lot might be. The board decided to ask for no changes.
Also, pickleball courts are on the way.
Dear Neighbors,
This week Brattletboro passed a budget for the 12 months starting July 1. You can hear my thoughts (3-minute clip) on the budget here: https://www.youtube.com/live/YduOTj9stGs?feature=shared&t=1119
I supported the budget, and it passed Representative Town Meeting with flying colors (110-4, with about a dozen people abstaining). It represents compromise. We should look to the budgeting process for the following year, and time between now and then, to strengthen our Town’s financial situation, with an eye out for generations to come.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Friday, May 30, 2025 at 12:00pm at the Brattleboro Municipal Center (230 Main Street, Room 212) and over Zoom. The attached agenda contains information on how to access the meeting remotely, including the required “passcode.” Closed captioning will be available for deaf and hard-of-hearing community members.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a regular meeting on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 at 6:15pm in the Selectboard Meeting Room at the Brattleboro Municipal Center (230 Main Street, Room 212) and over Zoom. Prior to the meeting the Board will meet at 5:45pm to hold committee interviews for the Development Review Board. The attached agenda contains information on how to access the meeting remotely, including the required “passcode.” ASL interpreters will be available for deaf and hard-of-hearing community members.
The report of the RTM Finance Committee for the May 27 Special Representative Town Meeting is posted on the Town’s website.
Go to: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rO3ELZP6e8HewXSf4CmYVbYtCaximdvL/view
The Finance Committee met weekly while the Selectboard was working on the revised budget and then held four meetings in May to prepare the report.
District 9 residents in Brattleboro are cordially invited to attend a forum to express their opinions about the revised budget prepared for a special Representative Town Meeting (RTM); the new budget is intended to replace an earlier version that was voted down by RTM and will, if approved, guide spending in the next fiscal year which begins 1 July.
The forum will be held in the Community Room (third floor) of the Brooks Memorial Library at 7 pm on Wednesday 14 May. RTM members from District 9 are encouraged to attend to hear their constituents’ opinions.
The Brattleboro Finance Committee will meet on Monday, May 5, 2025 at 6:00pm in the Hanna Cosman Meeting Room.
The Brattleboro Finance Committee will meet on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 at 6:00pm in the Hanna Cosman Meeting Room.
The Brattleboro Selectboard held a May Day meeting to discuss and pass their new budget, which takes the overall municipal tax increase down from 12.1% to 10.8%, shaving 1.3% from the budget rejected by Representative Town Meeting.
The public, those allowed to speak, weren’t very impressed.
Chair McLoughlin began by apologizing for being rude to young people at the previous board meeting. Later on, she shut down the meeting with gavel banging and demands for an adult to stop speaking about something she said could not be tolerated- a discussion of Rescue Inc correcting the record.
Town Manager John Potter did what the Brattleboro Selectboard asked and has revised the FY26 budget with an additional $317k in savings. Here’s his memo to the board explaining the cuts he made on their behalf.
And yes, there are un-chill cuts to the Library.
Rescue Inc sent a letter to the Brattleboro Selectboard asking them to use correct numbers when discussing their services. In it, they calculate that the net cost to the town for FY26 EMS services would have been $255,846.00.
Full letter below:
The Brattleboro Selectboard will meet on Thursday, May 1, 2025, at 6:15pm in the Selectboard Meeting Room and over Zoom. The agenda includes information on how to access the meeting remotely. Either ASL interpreters of closed captioning will be available in the meeting for deaf and hard of hearing community members. The backup materials for this meeting will be available on the website early next week.
The Brattleboro Selectboard held another in their month of many meetings to focus on decisions around solid waste and to hear the results of their budget decisions thus far. Those results were not good. They also warned a special Representative Town meeting to vote on the revised FY26 budget, which will face further revision.
As with last week, I’m watching this second meeting of the week but not typing up every word. I’ll summarize again.
Over five hours and the agenda topic – possible reductions in public safety services – was barely discussed by the board. There were over 70 items on the list to be discussed that didn’t get much of a mention.
Tuesday’s meeting seemed designed to prevent the board from having an on-topic discussion. It was stuffed with information previously presented and comments already taken. The people we most wanted to hear from – new board members – didn’t get to have a robust discussion, and their limited discussion didn’t begin until well after 10 pm.
At tomorrow’s meeting, the new members will be told that they are out of time and have to go with the budget as presented. They will be told it is their budget. Buck will be passed back to them now for RTM.
The Brattleboro Selectboard continued their month of many meetings with a discussion of potential service reductions in public safety.
It was a long meeting, mostly because the police and fire departments were given hours to speak of the value they provide to the town. After that, the public spoke about how much they valued the police and fire departments. In the end, no changes will happen and the town may end up hiring more fire department staff. To save money.
Thanks to everyone who has sent a donation to support coverage!
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Thursday, April 24, 2025 at 6:15pm in the Selectboard Meeting Room and over Zoom. Information on how to log onto the Zoom meeting can be found in the agenda. ASL interpreters will be in the meeting for the deaf and hard of hearing. The materials for this meeting will be available on the town website later this week.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 at 6:15pm in the Selectboard Meeting Room and over Zoom. Instructions on how to access the meeting remotely can be found in the agenda. ASL interpreters will be in the meeting for deaf and hard of hearing members of the public. The materials for this meeting will be posted on the town’s website by the end of the day.
I won’t be doing the usual transcription-style tonight. It’s too many meetings to type that much. But I will watch and give you highlights. And I’ll make a rare pitch – if you’d like to make a donation to help underwrite all of this, it does help. On to the show.
….
First off, they instituted a new sign up per topic list for those in the room, adding another level of confusion/intimidation for members of the public who must now anticipate what will be said and if they might like to respond.
The Brattleboro Selectboard, meeting for some regular business and a discussion of the evolving FY26 budget, were able to agree on a few structural budget issues – to have a long term financial plan once again and to have a capital equipment and a capital infrastructure plans as well.
The new fire chief praised his amazing staff, and all town departments. He also gave the first accounting of what EMS services were costing the taxpayers. Solid waste and mural discussions were postponed. And the 12% tax increase was really just 6% if you average it with some other numbers.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Thursday, April 17, 2025 at 6:15pm in the Selectboard Meeting Room at the Municipal Center (230 Main Street, Rm. 212) and over Zoom. The attached agenda contains information on how to access the meeting remotely, including the required “passcode.” ASL interpreters will be available for deaf and hard-of-hearing community members. The backup materials for this meeting will be available on the town Website Brattleboro.gov/Selectboard as soon as possible.
