Next Steps for a Damaged Republic

It would have been comforting to have Trump out of our minds in the last few months of his reign of chaos, but egomaniacs such as he do not move on graciously. We will continue to be enveloped with the shroud of madness until January 20 and that is a disgrace for America.

It eases the pain of the last four years for many of us that Biden and Harris were elected by a five million vote margin. We can look forward to January 21, 2021 when this country will no longer be governed by tweets and when division and rancor will no longer be the tone from the White House.

But we also have to recognize the fact that over 72 million people voted for Trump. That means that this country remains deeply divided and it means that Biden will not be able to easily heal the wounds of the past four years simply by trying to be a nice guy who says he wants to be the President for all Americans.


Brattleboro VFW $12 Turkey Meal Saturday Nov. 21st – Public Welcome

Starting Monday Nov. 9th, the Brattleboro VFW at 40 Black Mountain Road will start taking reservations for our Saturday, November 21st $12 turkey meal. The meal will be served from 4pm-7pm. For $12, you will get turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, roll, stuffing, cranberry sauce and blueberry or raspberry pie with whipped cream for dessert. There will be other menu items available that night (burgers, fries, onion rings, wings and sandwiches). Please call in to let us know how many meals you will require, names of people, (for contact tracing) and the approximate time you will be arriving for dine in or pick up. To-go’s welcome from 4pm-7pm. Public is welcome.


2020 Brattleboro Real Estate and Personal Property Taxes – Second Installment Due

The second installment of the 2020 Brattleboro Real Estate and Personal Property Taxes will be due on November 16, 2020.  Payments made after November 16, 2020 will have an additional 1% interest added to the unpaid balance.

The Town of Brattleboro utility bills are also due on November 16, 2020. Payments made after November 16, 2020 will have an additional 1% interest, as well as an 8% penalty, added to the unpaid balance.


Brattleboro Community Safety Review Committee Listening Process Underway 

Facilitated Brattleboro committee offering multiple ways to share experiences with community safety and policing

Brattleboro, VT, For Immediate Release- The Brattleboro Community Safety Review facilitators and committee are working on collecting as much information about community safety and policing as possible from area residents this month. While listening is open to anyone in or around Brattleboro, the project is working hard to make sure the voices of the people with the most experience of danger & harm, police contact, and safety related interventions are at the center. The project scope includes a systems review of the Brattleboro Police Department, which includes listening sessions with officers and statistical and policy reviews, along with looking at mental health and psychiatric interventions, Department of Children and Families interventions, and other community responses to violence, danger, or harm. The project names anti-racism and anti-oppression as fundamental, and all information shared with the facilitators one on one or digitally will be thoroughly de-identified to protect the safety of people who want to share their experiences. People who work in community safety and support systems are also welcomed to share their perspectives, and are also offered de-identification and confidentiality so they may share freely about the successes and failures of existing structures of community safety and visions for a safer Brattleboro.


BCTV Schedules Week of November 9, 2020

BCTV Channel 8 / 1075 schedule for the week of 11/9/20

Monday, November 9, 2020

5:00 am Next Stage Arts – Rigged – A Voter Suppression Panel
6:15 am Old Stone House Museum – “Fall/Winter Wreath Making”
7:00 am Historic Windsor and the Preservation Education Institute Presents – Mid-Century Modernism in VT
8:00 am Democracy Now! – Democracy Now! Daily Broadcast
9:00 am Brattleboro Rallies – Black Lives Matter Mural in Putney 9/27/20
9:45 am Home Funerals Green Burials – A Windham County – Mary Ellen Franklin


Brattleboro Town Manager’s November 6 COVID-19 Update – What’s New

WHAT IS NEW TODAY 

• Businesses can now remotely fill out and pay for their 2021 Business License. Go Here for the link to the form and to pay online. Check/Money Order also can be mailed to the Town Assessor’s Office at 230 Main Street, Suite 109, or dropped off in the brown “Town Business” drop box in the Municipal Center parking lot. The annual fee is $50. 

• Both the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Leagues have voted not to move forward with league play this winter. However, Men’s and Women’s Adult Basketball Open Gym & Pickup Games will be offered at the Gibson Aiken Center located at 207 Main Street. This program is by donation and will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 7pm-8:30pm, beginning immediately. Please note that this program is for men and women who are 18 years old and older and all participants must be out of high school. To participate on any specific evening, arrive between 7pm and 7:15pm. No one will be admitted after 7:15pm. Due to COVID-19: 


Brattleboro Selectboard Special Meeting Agenda – November 10, 2020

The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting, including two site visits, on Tuesday, November 10, 2020.  The Board will convene the meeting at 12:00 noon at 28 Vernon Street and then move to 12 Left Bank Way.  The Board will recess the meeting after the site visits and reconvene the business portion of the meeting at 6:15pm using Zoom (with no physical location due to the ongoing social distancing requirements of COVID-19).   The attached agenda contains information about how to access the meeting remotely, including the required “passcode.”  Information about how to connect to the meeting is also posted on the homepage of the Town’s website.  ASL interpreters will be available at the business portion of the meeting at 6:15pm for deaf and hard-of-hearing community members.


Brattleboro Veterans’ Day Closings

In observance of Veterans’ Day, all Brattleboro Town Offices will be closed on Wednesday, November 11, 2020, with the exception of emergency services. 

Parking is free at all metered spaces and in the pay-and-display lots on Wednesday, November 11. All other violations will be enforced. 

Brooks Memorial Library will be closed on Wednesday, November 11, 2020. 


I Am Feeling Hopeful

Written at 9:29 pm, Wednesday

https://www.foxnews.com/

I feel that Fox has been preparing it’s audience to recognize a Biden win by letting straight-up reporting of the results speak for itself, without no hint of inflaming passions over the idea that the election is being stolen. Apparently Fox does not want to incite conflict. They are reporting what Trump says, matter-of-factly, and reporting that: Biden predicts victory, says he will govern as an ‘American president’


Town of Brattleboro Update: COVID-19 at American Legion Not A Risk To Voters

Town Clerk Hilary Francis learned that a person who visited the Legion last week has tested positive for COVID-19. Francis advised Town Manager Peter Elwell immediately of this information and also that someone who was at the Legion yesterday had briefly interacted with the visitor last week. Town Manager Elwell reviewed this matter with officials at the Vermont Department of Health. The department informed him that because of the circumstances of the person’s potential exposure, no one who was at the Legion yesterday was at risk, or are being considered a “close contact.” Also, the Legion was deep cleaned last weekend (as it is every weekend) and best practices to prevent the spread of germs were in place throughout yesterday’s voting at that site. 


Reading Defoe’s Journal of a Plague Year (So You Don’t Have To)

Great Plague London 1665

Because I’m a glutton for punishment, I’ve been reading “plague literature,” which is really only interesting if you happen to be going through something comparable as we are now. Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of a Plague Year is just what you’d expect — an account of one year in the life of a Londoner as he navigates the complexities of surviving the Great Plague of 1665.