Brattleboro ADA Advisory Committee Meeting

The Brattleboro ADA Advisory Committee will meet on Friday, May 9, 2014 at 10:00am at the Marlboro College Graduate Center in the VCIL conference room.

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


Back Pain Treatment is Topic of Free BMH Educational Program

On May 19, at 6:00 PM in the Brew Barry Conference Room, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will be offering a free educational program entitled, “Understanding Back Pain and Sciatica: When is Surgery Advised,” by Dr. Jon Thatcher.

Thatcher, who is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon, will discuss the causes of back pain, surgical and nonsurgical treatment options, and when surgery is appropriate.

“Many people suffer from back pain, and most back pain can be treated conservatively without surgery,” says Thatcher. “Surgery becomes more effective when leg pain is caused by a pinched nerve in the lower back known as sciatica.”


Unspeakable Saturday Night

Tomorrow evening, sixteen local residents will perform a public reading of “Project Unspeakable” at 7pm New England Youth Theater.  A facilitated discussion of the play and the issues, questions and feelings it raises for the audience will follow.

The script, with the exception of two Narrators and a young seeker of truth, is made up of actual quotes attributed to each of the dozens of characters portrayed. Saturday’s cast includes Sophie Bady-Kaye, Frederic Noyes, Daniel Cantor Yalowitz, John Ungerleider, Bob Bady, Leo Schiff, Gary and Leslie Sullivan Sachs, Mary Kay Sigda, Greg Moreau, John O’Neal, Paula Green, RylandWhite, Tim Bullard, Debbie Lynangale and Amilcar Shabazz.

After three rehearsals and indivdual sessions with the director and principal playwright Court Dorsey, we are eager to share this moving and motivating story with the public.


New Technology for Hip Replacement is Topic of Free BMH Educational Program

On May 12, at 6:00 PM in the Brew Barry Conference Room, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital will be presenting a free educational program entitled, “The Anterior Hip: A Muscle-Sparing Approach to Total Hip Replacement,” by Dr. William Vranos.

Vranos, a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon and a Fellow in the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, will describe this new approach to replacing the hip, which is minimally invasive and spares muscles from incision allowing patients to have a shorter recovery time and less rehabilitative time.


Selectboard Special Meeting Notes: Everyone Is Heard, Nothing Is Decided

The Brattleboro Selectboard held their special meeting to continue discussion of the FY15 budget on Thursday with a large crowd in attendance that included many town meeting representatives and town staff, along with others including some that rarely attend public meetings of any sort.

No decisions were made, but the Selectboard seemed to be sticking to their previously announced views, a 3-2 majority favoring significant cuts beyond the elimination of the second bond.

The public seemed divided as well, with some insisting they could afford increases and would like the same budget as before, while others expressed real issues with tax increases and asked for relief.


Elliot St. Flash Fighting

Yet another conflict on Elliot. The second in recent days. This evening a woman at 175 Elliot St. was transported with a head & neck injury. When the head injury occured this afternoon she refused transport. But tonight she was in severe pain. Brutal assault. Are the people on Elliot getting more violent? I wonder. How do we have a dialogue about this?


Traffic Light At High and Main Temporarily Repaired

The traffic light at Main and High Streets has been temporarily repaired with spare parts and is back in service after one of the components was damaged on Tuesday. The strobe light which indicates when the train is crossing Bridge Street is still out of service at this intersection and will NOT activate until the repair is complete.

Department of Public Works
211 Fairground Road, Brattleboro, Vermont 05301
Tel: 802-254-4255 • Fax: 802-257-2316 • E-mail: brattdpw@sover.net


Selectboard Meeting Tonight – Location

For clarification on the location of the Selectboard meeting tonight:

The Special Selectboard meeting tonight (May 1) is scheduled in the BAMS (Brattleboro Area Middle School) multi-purpose room at 6:30pm. The “BAMS Front Entrance” door on the south side of the building will be unlocked. Parking is available by the BAMS front entrance, in the “parking lot bus loop” lot on the southwest side of BAMS building, and at the Community Bible Chapel on Atwood Street. For additional information, please contact the Town Manager’s office (251-8151).

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


Things For The Village Meeting To Take In Hand, 1885

From the Vermont Phoenix, May 1, 1885, an article discussing matters that should be discussed at the upcoming annual village meeting.

Things For The Village Meeting To Take In Hand, 1885

A matter of the first importance, which should receive attention at the annual village meeting next Tuesday evening, is the sanitary condition of the village. With a cholera invasion threatened, and all the great cities of the country fearing an attack of the scourge, more importance will attach to sanitary matters in every community the coming season than ever before.

While Brattleboro as a rule is in clean, wholesome condition, and enjoys a remarkable degree of freedom from epidemic disease, there are plague spots in the village which are too obvious to need pointing out.


Special Budget Meeting Will Be At BAMS Multi Purpose Room

There have been a few locations mentioned for the Special Budget Meeting scheduled for tonight at 6:30 PM.  I called the Town Manager’s Office this morning, and Executive Secretary Jan Anderson tells me that the meeting will take place in the BAMS (Middle School) Multi Purpose Room.  

People who go to the BAMS Gymnasium (as listed in the official meeting warning) or the BUHS Multi Purpose Room (as listed in the Brooks Library notice yesterday) will be directed to the proper location at BAMS Multi Purpose Room.

Just wanted to clear that up as I was feeling confused myself.  And as Jan says, there will be signs so it should be easy to find once you get to there.


Just So Pediatrics Hosts an Open House

On May 13, from 4:00 – 6:00 PM, is hosting an open house to celebrate its new location in the Medical Office Building at 19 Belmont Avenue, Suite G102 on the ground floor, at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. 

Situated just across the street from their old location and conveniently located on the hospital grounds the new office provides larger space and updated facilities.

“The new location is bright, beautiful, and fully functional,” says Dr. Valerie Rooney.”We’ve added an additional exam room and are accepting new patients to our new facility.”


Public Work Session to Examine Bicycling and Walking Alternatives in West Brattleboro

Brattleboro is continuing its study of making it easier to walk and bicycle in West Brattleboro along Western Avenue. A grant award from the Vermont Agency of Transportation is funding the study. The Town will hold the second of three public work sessions associated with this project on May 13, 2014 at 6:00 PM, in the Selectboard Meeting Room in the Municipal Center at 230 Main Street.

RSG and Broadreach Planning & Design, hired by the Town to assist with the study, will present a variety of alternatives for creating better bicycling and walking conditions on Western Avenue. The consultants hope to reach consensus among the meeting attendees on which alternative or alternatives are most appropriate.


Brattleboro FY15 Budget Pie Chart

This pie chart shows all the town’s major budget areas so people can see graphically how they compare. The budget is largely driven by personnel costs – salaries, insurance, retirement, etc. – for the people providing us with services.

A lot of people seem to be writing and talking about the police-fire project as if the $9 million bond would be a major factor in the town budget. While it is certainly nothing to sneeze at and it may have been the straw the broke the camel’s back with respect to passing the budget, in the scope of all the town’s expenses the project is just that – a straw. Reducing the town’s budget (and property taxes) is by no means as simple as just skipping the $9M bond.

(Edit: slide tweaked Thursday afternoon to show $9M first bond payment more exactly as $261,473, add FY13 and FY14 budgets, and show scale of impact of $9M bond on future budgets.)


Brattleboro Selectboard Special Meeting – A Personnel Matter

The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Monday, May 5, 2014 at 5:00pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center. It is anticipated that the Board will enter into executive session at 5:00pm to discuss a personnel matter.

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


Traffic Light Damaged at High and Main in Brattleboro

The traffic light at Main and High Streets has been placed on flash mode until further notice. The traffic light pole was struck on Tuesday by a truck navigating Main Street, causing considerable damage. Parts are on order and until they are received and repairs completed, the light will remain on flash.

-Department of Public Works

211 Fairground Road, Brattleboro, Vermont 05301
Tel: 802-254-4255 • Fax: 802-257-2316 • E-mail: brattdpw@sover.net


Annual “Taste of the Town” Feeds the Winston L. Prouty Center

The Winston L. Prouty Center for Child Development is pleased to announce that its 25th Taste of the Town fundraiser, will take place May 10th, 6:30-10:30pm at the International Center on the World Learning Campus (One Kipling Road) in Brattleboro.

The $50 ticket to The Taste of the Town gives one a delectable sampling of culinary delights donated from the best chefs and caterers in the area. Once again, the sought after bouquets and arrangements donated by area florists and nurseries that help transform the International Center to the idyllic setting of a spring garden will be given away as door prizes. The silent and live auction will offer great services from area merchants and businesses. There will be musical entertainment provided by the Butterfly Swing Band as well.


Author Tracey Allyson on “Dying & Living in the Arms of Love” and Her Pilgrimage to Tibet

Join clinical psychologist Tracey Allysson in a talk about her book, Dying & Living in the Arms of Love; One Woman’s Journey around Mount Kailash, at Brooks Memorial Library on Wednesday, April 30, 7 PM in the meeting room on the 2nd floor. Alysson circumambulates Mt. Kailash through prostrations and records her life-altering sojourn at the center of the spiritual universe. Tracey Alysson has a  Ph.D.  and is a clinical psychologist with a passion for the spiritual in human experience and the human in spiritual experience, records her pilgrimage to Tibet in her book.

Alysson’s work is an autobiographical travel book reminiscent of Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer’s bestseller “Seven Years in Tibet.”“I was not aware that circumambulating Mt. Kailash is called khora, and that a very small number of pilgrims will do khora with prostrations,” Alysson recollects.  “It was from within my heart that there arose a fierce longing and devotion to go to Kailash, to lie on the land of Tibet with my heart open wide.


The Old Country Fiddler

Historic Fiddle Program, Sunday, May 4, 2014, 2:00 PM at the Broad Brook Grange

Presenting Adam Boyce of West Windsor As Charles Ross Taggart Vermont’s Traveling Fiddler

Taggart of Topsham VT, toured the US , starting in 1894, for 40 years as a “musical humorist.” Adam Boyce portrays Taggart around the end of his career, with live fiddle playing, and telling of the traveling fiddler’s recollections and observations of life on the road in that era. Boyce himself is an accomplished fiddler and composer of over 100 fiddle tunes.


Did Citizens Awaken A Hibernating Open Town Meeting?

Something unusual seems to be happening. Through an odd combination of circumstances, what amounts to an open town meeting on the FY15 budget is breaking out.

How? A necessary number of Town Meeting representatives petitioned to have a town-wide referendum on the budget. Informational meetings prior to the vote had low turnout. The budget was voted down. 

The Selectboard then held a special meeting and proposed cuts that provoked the citizenry into turning out in great number at a second special meeting, causing one of the best attended Selectboard meetings in years.