The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Thursday, June 13, 2024 at 12:00pm at Holton Hall at the Winston Prouty Center (4th Floor, 209 Austine Drive) to conduct their annual Selectboard Retreat. This meeting will be carried by BCTV after the conclusion. The backup materials for this meeting will be available on the town Website Brattleboro.gov/Selectboard by the end of today.
The first meeting of June for the Brattleboro Selectboard and they decided your Water & Sewer Rates are going up 5%.
The board spent quite a bit of time, though, talking about raising your parking rates, too. Remember the great meter system that the Town staff insisted be purchased a few years back? Fast forward a bit and now the Town staff wants to cut down every meter and replace them with a handful of credit card powered kiosks. They’d like to get rid of any coins or cash in the system. And Town staff suggested merely doubling current rates.
Newly increased water rates will be adopted and the FY25 Parking Fund will be presented for approval at the next regular meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard. Part of the discussion will be the adoption of a grant for downtown parking system improvements. A slightly more unusual part will be to choose between parking fund revenues of $654,500 or $1,029,500, which most likely means a decision about raising parking rates.
There will be a small affordable housing grant for BAAH, and an application for a grant to improve sidewalks and add a path to the backside of the Common. You can bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.
The Brattleboro Selectboard had a first reading of a new ordinance regarding vacant buildings around town. If a building is vacant for 180 days, it must get a permit, and the cost of the permit doubles each year. Will it finally put some pressure on the empty Home Depot building? Not as written. It will be exempt.
In a discussion about possible municipally-owned properties that could be candidates for new housing developments, Liz McLoughlin mentioned a confidential plan that might include both the Municipal Center and the High Grove parking lot. She didn’t explain further.
And, your water rates will go up 5% rather than 1% this October.
At their next regular meeting, the Brattleboro Selectboard will consider a number of ordinance changes, and in one case an “ordnance ” change. Water and sewer rates, liquor licenses, and vacant buildings are the topics.
They will also hear about the suitability (or “suitablity”) of municipal properties for potential housing, and list the various committee vacancies that are awaiting members of the public to apply and serve. You can bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.
The Brattleboro Selectboard Retreat, scheduled for Friday, May 17th and Saturday, May 18th has been cancelled. The Retreat has been rescheduled for Thursday, June 13th
The Brattleboro Selectboard will meet for a special meeting on Friday, May 17, 2024 at 2:00pm at Holton Hall at the Winston Prouty Center (4th floor, 204 Austine Drive). The board is expected to recess around 6:00pm until Saturday, May 18 at 9:00am. This meeting will be carried on BCTV after the conclusion of the meeting.
The Brattleboro Selectboard is contemplating just how much to raise Utility rates, specifically the cost of water. Rather than a 1% increase in FY25, they are thinking of raising it 5%, and 5% every year until 2030. But, it might go up even more because of the new expert study of utility rates they will commission for $75,000.
In good news, all the major roads of Brattleboro that the state has a hand in will be repaved in 2025-2026. And the Charter Commission is taking a deep dive into all sorts of issues related to Town Meeting and asking for your input.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hear an update from the Charter Review Commission at their next regular meeting. They’ll also hear from BDCC, and the DPW, and the ATM about the UFB. (“Matt Busby. Dig it, dig it, dig it….”)
You can bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Thursday, April 25, 2024 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 at 5:30pm, the Board will convene and is expected to enter immediately into executive session to discuss contracts and real estate negotiations. 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 by the end of today.
The Brattleboro Selectboard heard two overviews at their short Tuesday meeting. The first was regarding the very long process of relicensing the dams along the Connecticut River. They got the overview and agreed to send a letter to FERC outlining local desires for the relicensing plan.
The second overview was about the major changes to trash, recycling and organic waste collection in Brattleboro after July 1. The sole bidder for the collection contract, Casella, wants to use one-person trucks that use joystick-controlled grabbers to pick up new, special trash receptacles. Town staff will be gathering information from residents about how much more they are willing to pay, and if they’d like to contract directly with Casella, if all waste should be picked up every other week, what to do about already-bought bags and containers, and other important issues.
Th Brattleboro Selectboard has a low impact agenda planned for the next regular meeting. One of the two big issues will be approving a letter regarding their opinion of relicensing the Vernon Dam.
The other issue is, heh heh, who will pick up the trash? The board only got one bid, from current provider Casella. Assistant Town Manager Patrick Moreland will suggest they punt this one down the road and gather input from the community before making any decisions.
You can bring up other items not on the agenda (as long as you are respectful) during Public Participation.
The Brattleboro Selectboard took issue with new costs of a bridge project requested by an earlier board, and sent VTrans back to their offices without an approval for their design of the Western Ave bridge replacement near Melrose. VTrans is invited back when the project won’t cost the Town quite so much. No one mentioned the increases that will inevitably occur between now and 2028 when the bridge is scheduled to be completed.
The board also took up some start-up and general housekeeping issues. New Chair Daniel Quipp pledged earlier meeting end times and more public participation in the coming year.
A relatively easy first official Brattleboro Selectboard meeting for new Chair Daniel Quipp is scheduled for Tuesday. The Consent Agenda is ample, there are some board rules and assignments to take care of, and there will be some discussion of the recent Representative Town Meeting.
The big discussion could be that the board might use property taxes to pay for matching costs associated with replacing the Rt 9 bridge at Melrose Place. The Town’s share has risen from half a million to $1.6 million since 2021.
You can once again, one assumes, bring up any other item not on the agenda during public participation.
The Brattleboro Selectboard organized themselves with the assistance of Brattleboro’s Town Clerk, swearing in members, electing a new Chair, Vice-Chair, and Clerk.
Daniel Quipp is the new Chair, Liz McCloughlin is Vice Chair, and Richard Davis is the Clerk.
The Brattleboro Selectboard’s Organizational Meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 6:15pm, in the Selectboard Meeting Room (230 Main Street, RM 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 the deaf and hard of hearing.
Thank you to all of the voters who turned out for the Brattleboro election on March 5. Democracy is alive and well in our town. And thank you to those who voted for me. I hope to represent those who voted for me and those who voted for other candidates. The Brattleboro selectboard is a non-partisan institution and that means that we have a great deal of potential for collaboration and consensus building.
I hope to promote that climate on the selectboard and to be a voice for the people of Brattleboro. I intend to ask a lot of questions and make sure issues important to all voters are discussed openly and in necessary detail.
Richard Davis
The Brattleboro Selectboard made important decisions over the last year
–Proposing to Representative Town Meeting an increase in staff salaries by 13.1%, which will result in salaries and benefits constituting 61.2% of the Town budget, up from 58.3%
–Replacing emergency medical services (EMS) previously provided by Resue (and in the last two years by Golden Cross) with EMS services embedded in the Brattleboro Fire Department, all despite sustained public opposition
The Brattleboro Selectboard has decided to have a tiny meeting on Vermont’s Town Meeting Day. While everyone else will be looking over vote totals and analyzing candidate and issue wins and losses, the board will discuss upcoming legislation at the state level this season, public safety, and committees. They will likely squeeze in reactions to local election news as well.
You can bring up other items, if this Chair allows, during Public Participation.
I am Richard Davis, a 74 year old semi-retired nurse, writer and political activist running for a one year seat on the Brattleboro selectboard. A Boston area native, I have lived in Windham County for the past 45 years, 41 of those years in Guilford and for the past 2 ½ years in Brattleboro with my wife Roberta Levy.
I feel that the current board would benefit from new blood to provide a different perspective on issues important to the people of Brattleboro. Many people have been frustrated at the appearance of a lack of transparency that has surrounded the actions of the current board, especially in relation to the decision to end a long-standing relationship with Rescue Inc.
