The Brattleboro RTM Finance Committee will meet on Wednesday, January 8, 2025 at 6:15pm in the Brooks Memorial Library, Mezzanine Room.
The Tree Advisory Committee will meet on Thursday, January 9, 2025 at 4:15pm in the Hanna Cosman Meeting Room.
The Charter Revision Commission will meet on Thursday, January 9, 2025 at 6:15pm in the Selectboard Meeting Room and over Zoom.
Greetings! I thought I’d share a new local musical project with you – my new solo EP called “OH NO” is now available.
It’s not for all ears, of course, but if you like quirky, funky, dance-y music, protest funk, and satirical commentary on the present times this just might be what you are looking for to lift your day. Or 18 minutes of it, at least.
The Finance Committee of Representative Town Meeting approved the following resolution at its 18 December meeting:
The Finance Committee is concerned that the Selectboard was unwilling to consider staff cuts during its December 17 discussion for reducing the FY26 budget, relying instead on cuts to services and deferrals to FY27. The Finance Committee calls upon the Selectboard to instruct the Town Manager to present to the Selectboard a list of potential staff cuts to consider for FY26 at its next meeting. We recognize that the concept of staff cuts is painful, but we believe that considering it is an essential part of the responsible management of the Town.
Advocates and social service agencies that support homeless people are preparing for funding battles over the next four years that they know they are very likely to lose. With Republicans in control of the federal government, we can expect to see cuts to programs and a general stigmatization of homeless people as mentally ill substance abusers who should be herded into programs that should help them.
It is a false construct. Most people have come to realize that when Republicans say that homeless people need to seek out mental health support first, that the power brokers really don’t care what happens to them. The power brokers know that there are never enough people or programs to support homeless people with mental health and substance abuse issues.
AGENDA
I. Call to Order
II. Public Comment on Non-Agenda Items [6:00-6:10]
III. 1 V.S.A. §313(a)(7) the academic records or suspension or discipline of students.
Potential Action Anticipated
We’ve had Holocaust Denial. Now we have the phenomenon of Genocide Denial in spite of the plethora of photographs and videos of the obliterated cites of the Gaza Strip, of the deliberate demolition of neighbourhoods, cultural sites, and essential facilities” in violation of international law.
President-elect Donald Trump has been impressive in his statements and comments since his overwhelming election. He speaks with authority and determination in his voice promising to resolve the nations problems and take the high road morally on all issues.
All the more perplexing is Trump’s maintaining silence at best, and at worse contradicting reality regarding the genocide in Gaza by saying the judges of the International Court of Justice must be sanctioned for issuing an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his minister of defense.
While hotel owners reap abusive profits, Vermonters are suffering extreme tax hikes, and the housing crisis threatens to bankrupt the state, and homeless people are dying in the streets, we must take emergency measures.
Quoting Karl Grossman on Counterpunch, “The application of the state’s power of “eminent domain” to nuclear power was pioneered in New York State in the 1980s – and was how the completed Shoreham nuclear plant was stopped from opening. That ended the scheme of nuclear promoters to turn Long Island into a “nuclear park” with seven to 11 nuclear plants.
For the month of December measured 4.25″ compared to a normal of 4.30 inches. Most fell as rain but we did receive 8.4″ of snow compared to my average of 13.8″. The approximate water equivalence of the snow was 0.55″, so a very dry cold snow from western clipper systems.
I have been measuring snow since 1993. The average December snow from 93-2010 = 16.1″ and from 2011 to current = 11.3″. Snowfall on average continues to fall as total precipitation increases. All this time we were well into climate change. Wish I had data from the 1960s when I don’t remember a lot of rain storms in winter.
Next Stage Arts presents a concert of original compositions in the Arabic Maqam tradition, featuring Kanun player Firas Zreik on Saturday, January 25 at 7:30 pm.
Kanun player and composer Firas Zreik has transformed global perception of the Kanun (Mediterranean harp). His treatment of the instrument preserves its identity as a vital part of the Maqam tradition, and stretches its potential as a cultural chameleon enhancing a range of fresh, evolving sounds. The Palestine-born New Yorker views the Maqam’s improvisation-driven legacy as a vessel for unbound creative expression across musical styles. His nuanced approach translates the Kanun’s resonant depth of emotion, with a mastery of microtonal soundscaping. In live performance, Zreik conjures a complexity of emotion that shape-shifts throughout his sets. He enters fragile places and sits inside them. This commitment to stark exploration has sent him around the world, performing at storied venues, intimate clubs and international festivals.
Review of Cases/Public Hearings to be reviewed under the Brattleboro Land Use Regulations as warned on October 12, 2015.
2025-1 Groundworks Collaborative; Residential Neighborhood 5400 District; request for site plan and waiver of dimensional standards approval to demolish the existing structures and construct a new community facility for an established emergency shelter use to serve up to forty (40) individuals. The two-story building will include office space, a kitchen and living area on the first floor and additional bedrooms with laundry facilities on the second floor. Site improvements include a new parking area with access drive, a patio area, and landscaping at 81 Royal Road; Tax Map Parcel #325283.000
6:15 – 7:10 Town Plan 2026 – Future Land Use
Interactive activity using maps and a lookbook to identify characteristics of development and uses that are desired for two areas of town.
7:10 – 7:25 Water & Sewer District and Zoning
Review and approve, if ready, proposed changes to the Land Use Regulations to bring areas with water and sewer into compliance with State statute.
7:25 – 7:40 Water & Sewer Ordinance
Review revised options for requiring sewer service area extensions/expansions to be supported by the Planning Commission, and/or the Town Plan and applicable planning bylaws. Vote on whether recommended one option to the Selectboard.
Here’s your seasonal spot to write up little things that might be worth a sentence. What have you noticed recently in the Brattleboro area?
Winter has kicked off with most of the late autumn snow and ice melting away. It is Dec 30 and near 50 degrees.
Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present a dance party with roots and world music quintet The Gaslight Tinkers at Next Stage on Friday, January 24 at 7:30 pm. Blending African, Caribbean, Funk, Reggae, and Latin grooves with traditional fiddle music, the quintet creates the genre-bending future of the music of the past.
The Gaslight Tinkers’ mix of global rhythms creates a joyous world beat sound around a core of traditional New England old time and celtic fiddle music, merging boundless positive energy with melody and song. Drawing from their extensive musical backgrounds in traditional folk, Caribbean, old time, Celtic, and rock, I-Shea, Clara, Garrett, Elie, and Peter craft a sound that brings world traditions together.
Fascinating stories of Kristin Sullivan’s explorations into the arts and traditions of other cultures, indigenous people here and abroad – she wraps all of that into her job here as E.D. at the Retreat Farm. Take a look, it’s an engaging ride!
RTM Human Services Committee
Monday, December 30, 2024
6:00-9:00pm
Selectboard Meeting Room (RM 212) The Municipal Center 230 Main Street and Zoom
Agenda
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82025368613
• Approve minutes from previous meetings
• Complete review of grant applications.
• Go into deliberative session to discuss rubric scores of applications
BRATTLEBORO – On a blustery cold Saturday, December 14, standing with supporters in front of the Brattleboro Post Office on Main Street, Isaac Evans-Frantz announced his campaign for a one-year seat on the Brattleboro Selectboard. The election will be on March 4, 2025. Seeing the other side of the street bathed in warm sunshine, while he and his supporters shivered in the shade, Evans-Frantz invited everyone to move toward the light and quickly regroup across Main Street for speeches, songs, and distribution of campaign materials.
“During the coming difficult years,” Evans-Frantz, who was born and raised in Brattleboro, said, “Brattleboro needs a new leader who will stand up for all of us. The current selectboard has made decisions contributing to a potential 22% increase in property taxes. Most of our incomes are not increasing by anywhere near this amount. In a year where calls to the police for serious crime increased by 16%, the selectboard passed an ordinance that would fine building owners when some residents report crimes. The current selectboard, left unchecked, risks making life harder — and less safe – for people in Brattleboro.”
There are a lot of evil, power-intoxicated people ruling countries all over the world. With the imminent ascension of a new evil person in our own country I was prompted to do some research to see if my fears of a world dominated by dictators and oligarchs might be closer to reality than most people realize.
Consider this. According to the United States Institute of Leadership and Diplomacy, “There are currently 49 dictatorships and authoritarian regimes in the world (21 in Africa, 18 in Asia, 7 in the Middle East, 1 in Europe and 2 in Americas). We define a dictator as the ruler of a land rated “Not Free” by the Freedom House in their annual survey of freedom.” That number was reduced to 48 with the fall of Assad in Syria, but who knows what kind of government will replace him?
Dec. 30 Cheddar & Ham Quiche
Home Fries
Onion & Peppers
Fruit Parfait
The Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office will be closed from Thursday, December 26, 2024 to Thursday, January 2, 2025
A group of current and former legislators who have worked on housing issues (former Sens. Illuzzi, Will Hunter, Jim Leddy, current Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky and Rep. Kate Logan) will hold a press event MONDAY at 10:30 at Delta Hotel, 1117 Williston Road, South Burlington to request Gov. Scott declare a state of emergency regarding the homelessness crisis and they will suggest some short-term solutions that should be promptly considered and enacted.
Attached is an introductory document to provide the theme and basis for the request for an emergency declaration, which has been done by one state and several communities across America.
