The Brattleboro Parking Department would like to announce the lifting of the winter parking ban. Starting tonight, 04/06/2022, at midnight, overnight parking will be allowed on all streets EXCEPT in the downtown area. The following streets are never available for overnight parking:
When Hitler was committing atrocities too much of the world stood by and did not do enough to protect the 12 million people whose lives became just one of the horrors of war. People who survived the Holocaust try to keep the memory of those events alive because they don’t want that kind of horror to play out again.
What we are witnessing now in Ukraine is the systematic brutality and elimination of a population of people deemed to be expendable by Putin and the Russian war machine. We are able to see the images of what war does to people and places at a level of detail never before possible and that should be enough to force world leaders to act to stop the Russian war machine.
The Brattleboro Selectboard, under new management of Chair Ian Goodnow, had their first regular meeting of April and their first long discussion. It was about goals and what they want to do in the coming year. They also had their first meeting in the Municipal Center in quite a long time, sitting closely without masks and wondering where members of the public might be.
The board approved of a catering license, loaned some more money for new housing, allowed short term rental in the parking garage, and more.
At 11 a.m. on Saturday April 16th, 2022 there will be a Memorial Tree Planting for Helene Henry at Prospect Hill Cemetery, South Main Street, Brattleboro.
Helene was known for her passion, commitment, and steadfast dedication to enhancing Brattleboro’s green spaces. She strongly advocated for trees being a part of any landscape, if she had her say. She believed that trees were the answer.
Personal Note:
During 3 decades that I have followed “insider” commentary, until now, Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of REALTORS® has always been a cheerleader for a rising market. It must be indicative of how insane the runaway pandemic market has been, that for the first time in my memory, Yun is hoping for a slow-down! ~ SK-B
From the April 4, 2022 edition of the trade publication: Realtors® Magazine.
BCTV Channel 1075 schedule for the week of 4/4/22
Monday, April 4, 2022
5:00 am Education and Enrichment for Everyone – Vermont’s State Refugee Office 3/4/22
6:00 am Champlain College – Ukraine in Context 3/10/22
7:00 am Brattleboro Literary Festival – Literary Cocktail Hour with Jonathan Evison
8:00 am Democracy Now! – Democracy Now! Daily Broadcast
9:00 am New England Youth Theatre presents – Clown Town
It was a year like this one: very little snow in New England. All the local ski areas were hurting.
The Laurentians to our north, however, had plenty of snow.
Mt. Tremblant, 90 miles northwest of Montreal, was offering a ski week package and I decided to take advantage of it.
Welcome to the April 2022 dashboard summary. We continue daily and limited-weekend COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro, as long as they continue providing them. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.
The Brattleboro Arts Committee will meet on Tuesday, April 5, 2022 at 3:00pm in the Selectboard Meeting Room at the Municipal Center (230 Main Street).
The Brattleboro Tree Advisory Committee will meet on Thursday, April 7, 2022 at 4:15pm in the Hanna Cosman Meeting Room at the Municipal Center (230 Main Street).
A rather routine agenda awaits the “new” Brattleboro Selectboard at their first regular meeting of April 2022. A liquor license, lease agreements, board goals and assignments, and loans. The board will also discuss raising the fee for recycling.
You can bring up other items not on this agenda during public participation.
In a close vote Tuesday, Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting representatives have decided to add a new layer to town government in what will surely represent a new era in governing the municipality.
“We felt that Brattleboro’s Representative Town Meeting is the best form of town meeting in the state of Vermont,” said one member. “If representatives are good for the general public, we thought we should use the system ourselves within Representative Town Meeting.”
AGENDA
I. CALL TO ORDER—6:00 p.m. — Michelle Luetjen Green, Board Chair
II. PUBLIC COMMENT
III. EXECUTIVE SESSION – 1 V.S.A. §313(a)(3) the appointment or employment of public officer or employee, provided that the public body shall make a final decision to hire or appoint a public officer or employee in an open meeting and shall explain the reasons for its final decision during open meeting.
AGENDA
I. CALL TO ORDER – 6:00 p.m. – Kelly Young, Board Chair
II. Public Comment (10 minutes)
III. EXECUTIVE SESSION – 1 V.S.A. §313(a)(3) the appointment or employment of public officer or employee, provided that the public body shall make a final decision to hire or appoint a public officer or employee in an open meeting and shall explain the reasons for its final decision during open meeting.
IV. Appoint Ad Hoc Committee of 3 to Confer with Investigators of Sexual Abuse Claims as Needed
Here’s an interesting idea to curb speculative investing: Create a rule that any new homebuyer must wait a year or two before renting out a property.
The Washington Post has a story about it being tried in a few places. Not a perfect solution, but slows that out-of-state speculation and the big investment companies are squealing so it must be working to some degree.
The town of Brattleboro recently lost one of its only two remaining local pharmacies not owned by national chains. Small independent pharmacies will soon become dinosaurs in an industry whose operations are convoluted and opaque.
I would like to explain why this problem exists but it is so complicated that it would take volumes to scratch the surface. A simple explanation might be helpful. The problem for small pharmacies is that their profit margins have been reduced to three or four percent in many cases. That is an unsustainable business model and something that keeps independent pharmacy owners awake at night.
(1) FUNDING FOR HEALTH CARE
We pay our taxes to the federal government, the I.R.S., and then the U.S. Congress votes to give billions of our tax dollars to the N.I.H., the National Institute of Health, and then they give out our tax dollars for medical research to create new vaccines and prescription drugs and medical devices, BUT since the Bayh-Dole Act was passed we have been cheated because the lead researcher is allowed, under this federal law, to own the Patents, which are the ownership rights to the new inventions
The following dates have been scheduled for Brattleboro’s curbside Spring Leaf Collection. All locations will be picked up each Friday:
Leaf Pick Up Date
ALL RESIDENTSFriday, April 15, 2022
ALL RESIDENTSFriday, April 29, 2022
All leaves and clippings must be in brown paper leaf bags and at the curb by 7:00 a.m. on scheduled leaf collection days. Acceptable waste…leaves, grass, clippings, garden waste, twigs, no branches larger than 1″ in diameter and 2 feet long. No other household trash is to be included.
Patti Smith lives and breathes in Nature – and writes and illustrates her discoveries. She’s befriended and rehabilitated many critters over the years, created nature programs, and been the heartbeat of Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC) since it began.
Take a look…… and then go for a walk!
Time once again for an open thread for you to post anything that you’ve noticed around town.
Potholes are eating cars.
Amy’s had been remodeled and reopened.
What have you noticed?
AGENDA
I. CALL TO ORDER—6:00 p.m. — Michelle Luetjen Green, Board Chair
II. UPDATE ON THE SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH
III. PUBLIC COMMENT
