Six Suggestions for Shorter Brattleboro Selectboard Meetings

by cgrotke | Op/Ed

Selectboard meetings can drag on. Meetings that start at 6:15 pm often end after 9 pm. It’s not as bad as the record-setting meeting of the mid-aughts that lasted well past midnight, but three hours is a long regular meeting, especially when board members may have met for an hour prior in Executive Session.

When meetings go on too long, participants lose energy and the quality of debate and discussion drops. Important issues can get rushed if they come late on an agenda.

Mothers Day Brunch Sunday in Guilford

by DonInGuilford | Food

Broad Brook Grange will present its 23rd annual Mother’s Day Brunch on Sunday, May 12, from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Broad Brook Community Center in Guilford.

The all-you-can-eat brunch features eggs and omelettes, any style, made to order. Also on the menu are pancakes, French toast, sausage, bacon and home fries, with Guilford maple syrup. Other treats include home-baked coffee cakes and other baked goods, fresh fruit salad, and bread for toasting. A selection of juices will be available, along with coffee, teas and milk.

Patty Carpenter & Verandah Porche with Jon Weeks and Wheeler Laird perform in Bellows Falls

by Mark Piepkorn | Music

Patty Carpenter & Verandah Porche, lifelong friends and collaborators who are no strangers to Brattleboro, will be playing a listening event at Stage 33 live in Bellows Falls with special guests Jon Weeks and Wheeler Laird on Sunday, May 19.

They’ll be playing some of the songs they’ve written since the Dysfunctional Family Jazz Band’s “Come Over” CD, which they also co-composed.

Brattleboro Women’s Chorus Concerts this Weekend: Walk With Me

by bwchorus | Music

The Brattleboro Women’s Chorus will present their 23rd annual spring concert, “Walk With Me,” on Mother’s Day weekend at Centre Congregational Church. Joining director Becky Graber and the 80-voice chorus of women will be Cathy Martin on piano and Connie Green on flute.

Last summer, a group of singers from the chorus traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan to participate in the Sister Singers Festival, a gathering of women’s choruses from across the country. The “Walk With Me” repertoire was inspired by that trip and features songs of travel, migration, community, and home. One of the concert’s songs, “Winnebago” by David Maddux, about an obvious means of hitting the road, was heard at the festival.

BCTV Schedules – Week of 5/6/19

by BCTVProg | Media

BCTV Channel 8 schedule for the week of 5/6/19

Monday, May 6, 2019

4:15 am VT Master Anglers – S01E03 – Freshwater Drum
4:30 am 350 VT – 65 Mile Next Steps Climate Solutions Walk
5:00 am Winston Prouty presents – Family Matters Ep 20 – Elisha Underwood
5:30 am BCTV Open Studio – 2019 Strolling of the Heifers Preview
6:25 am BCTV Open Studio – 2019 Slow Living Summit Preview

Timeline for Windham Southeast School District Merger

by Not Signed In | Education

Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) (Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney) Current Timeline for Merger (without legislative or court action)

Merged Board Elections

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Election for representatives to the WSESD School Board, by Australian ballot. Polls open in each Town 8am-7pm. Registered voters in each of the four towns will cast ballots to select school board members for all four towns. Each town will have two voting members on the merged board. Merged board members from the four towns will represent everyone in the merged district. Early voting begins May 1, 2019.

Vt Watercolor Society Exhibit Opens May 4 at 2:00

by JoyW-P | Arts

West Brattleboro, Vt. — The Arts Committee of All Souls Church invites the general public to an opening reception at West Village Meeting House on Saturday, May 4, 2:00-4:00 p.m., for “The Flow of Watercolor,” an exhibit by nine members of the Connecticut Valley Hub of the Vermont Watercolor Society (VWS). Showing their works in the foyer and other gallery spaces through the end of June are Carolyn Allbee, Carole-Anne Centre, Maisie Crowther, Nancy DiMauro, John Dimick, Kathy Greve, Steve Lloyd, Molly Martin, and Cath Stockbridge.

A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, VWS was founded by a small group of painters in 1995 and today has over 240 members throughout the state. The group’s mission is to promote awareness and appreciation of watercolor to its membership at all levels of ability and to the community by providing opportunities and venues for participation, education, fellowship, and exhibitions.

AFSCME-VT Calls For Picket Line Against Scott Walker 5/30/19

by Not Signed In | Activism

Rutland, Vermont, 2019 -The Vermont Republican Party has invited former Union-busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker to talk at a private fundraiser on May 30th, in Burlington at the Hilton Hotel on Battery Street. And while Vermonters are struggling to win a basic $15 an hour livable wage for all, wealthy VIP donors will be paying $1000 a seat to hear how Vermont too should follow his anti-Union lead. This is unacceptable.

Scott Walker is rabidly anti-Union. While Governor he rolled back foundational Union rights for workers in Wisconsin, making that state “right to work,” and essentially stripping all meaningful collective bargaining rights away from public sector workers.

VFW $6 Lunch Specials Open to the Public 5-6 to 5-10

by LisaL | Food

The Brattleboro VFW located at 40 Black Mountain Road is open to the public for lunch. Lunch is served Mon-Fri from 11:30 – 1:30. Specials listed below are only $6 a plate. Hand made burger, fries, sweet potato fries, wings, onion rings, soups and sandwiches are also available. Take outs available by calling 257-0438

Mon – liver & onions w/ mashed potatoes & veg

Past Life Regression – Believe It or Not

by Not Signed In | Other

Past Life Regression and Age Regression use hypnosis to help you retrieve forgotten memories from this life or from a different life from the past. Regressions are often used to help a client remember a traumatic past event, which remains unresolved in the subconscious mind and results in anxieties or phobias which seem to have no apparent cause. When the forgotten memory is made conscious and brought to a conscious level of understanding, the phobia or anxiety often disappears. In the case of past life regressions, it is held that memories from before the current life can be retrieved.

Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda and Notes – May 7, 2019

by cgrotke | Town News

A packed agenda awaits the Brattleboro Selectboard for their first regular meeting of May. Brattleboro broadband possibilities and a handicapped parking space on Main Street are just two items of note.

They’ll also talk about liquor licenses for new and old establishments. They will buy a dump truck, authorize improvements to the parking garage, plan summer paving, and discuss goals and town operations. There are grants to apply for, farm taxes to be stabilized, meetings to cancel, and more. And you can bring up other items during public participation.

Brattleboro ADA Committee Meeting Agenda

by Not Signed In | Town News

The Brattleboro ADA Advisory Committee will meet on Friday, May 10, 2019, at 9:00am in the Hanna Cosman Meeting Room at the Municipal Center.

NOTE:  The monthly meeting of the Brattleboro Energy Committee has been RESCHEDULED from May 6 to Monday, May 13, 2019, at 6:00pm in the Brattleboro Food Co-Op Community Room.

Free Author Talk at Brooks Library: Independence Corrupted

by Brooks Memorial Library | Books

Join us at 7 pm on Monday, May 6th,  in the Main Reading Room at Brooks Memorial Library,  as author Charles Schudson presents a FREE presentation about his new book, Independence Corrupted: How America’s Judges Make Their Decisions.

With twenty-two years in America’s courts, Judge Schudson knows the factors affecting judicial decision-making.  With scholarship and impassioned accounts of compelling cases, he brings readers behind the trial bench to see judges analyzing actual trials and sentencings – of abortion protesters, sex predators, murderers, white supremacists….

Free Hip Hop Concert with Rebel Diaz

by Brooks Memorial Library | Culture

Join us at 8 pm on Friday, May 10th, as Brooks Memorial Library hosts a kid-friendly concert by hip hop artists, Rebel Diaz! Doors will open at 7:30 pm.

Rebel Diaz is a political hip hop duo out of the Bronx, New York and Chicago, IL consisting of the Chilean brothers Rodstarz (Rodrigo Venegas) and G1 (Gonzalo Venegas). Rebel Diaz uses their music as an organizing tool and to spread knowledge about injustice.

Brooks Memorial Library Children’s Room will be Closed: Week of May 6th

by Brooks Memorial Library | Living

Brooks Memorial Library will be undergoing some minor renovations in May, beginning with new ceiling tiles in the Children’s Room.

Unfortunately, there is no way to safely remain open during this process, so beginning May 6th, the Children’s Room will be closed for about a week. You will still be able to enter the library from the second floor entrance, and use the elevator or stairs to access materials on the Mezzanine, and in the Main Reading Room.

Free Diversity Day Film Screening: I Am From Here

by Brooks Memorial Library | Culture

Join us at 7 pm on Thursday, May 2nd as we present a FREE screening of the movie: I Am From Here, in honor of Diversity Day.

This is an instructional film, originally created for public school staff, teachers, and administrators in Vermont. It was commissioned by the Vermont-NEA Racial Justice Task Force in collaboration with the National Education Association. Bess O’Brien from Kingdom County Productions produced the 30-minute film. She interviewed parents, community members, educators, and students from Vermont. Bess filmed their accounts of living in and going to school in Vermont.

Pete Seeger Centennial Tribute Singalong Concert

by GeorgeCC | Music

WEST BRATTLEBORO — Folk singer, activist, musical conscience for the U.S., Pete Seeger, would have been 100 this year. All Souls Church, 29 South Street, will host a singalong concert on Sunday, May 12, at 7 p.m. to celebrate Seeger’s music and his life-long efforts on behalf of peace, justice, and the earth.

The concert will feature well-known performers with deep connections to Seeger, including Sally Rogers, Emma’s Revolution, Peter Siegel, Annie Patterson and Peter Blood.

Those who attend the tribute concert will have the chance to sing together using a new songbook containing fifty classic songs Pete Seeger led throughout his life. Publishers Peter Blood and Annie Patterson of Rise Up Singing fame designed this new book for the Seeger centennial.

Early Voting in Brattleboro – Ballots Available

by Not Signed In | Politics

Early/absentee ballots for the Special School Merger Election to be held May 21, are now available in the Brattleboro, Town Clerk’s office.  Anyone wishing to vote prior to May 21 may apply for an early/absentee ballot until 5:00 p.m. on Monday, May 20.

Early/absentee ballots may be voted in person in the Clerk’s office, mailed to the voter by the Clerk’s office, picked up by the voter, or if a voter is in need can be delivered to the voter’s residence by two Justices of the Peace.  All voted ballots must be received by the Clerk before the polls close on election day in order to be counted.  For more information or to request an early/absentee ballot call 251-8157.