The Brattleboro Selectboard snatched defeat from the jaws of victory at Tuesday’s long, final regular meeting of the year. With a vote of 3-2, the board threw away their carefully-crafted and quite palatable FY16 budget that featured no cuts to services and no significant tax increase.

Instead, the split decision was to endorse going forward with all three Police and Fire facilites immediately, and to ask for a new budget that would include payments to do the full scope of work, potentially adding a significant amount to property taxes.  This sends the board back into budget meetings, and the spectre of service cuts and tax increases is now again on the horizon.

In other news,  a list of capital improvements that were to be added back in to the budget had to be sidelined, Brattleboro pays a somewhat arbitrary rate for solid waste removal, the board endorsed the use of the higher-priced bag system for PAYT, and a new union is recognized for town employees.

Sorry for the delay. I had this almost finished last night and the power went out.

Roads & Bridges’ Top 10 Bridge awards, created in 2000, recognize the top projects in North America. Each year, nominations are submitted to the R&B editorial staff, which determines the Top 10 list based on project challenges, impact to region and scope of work.

In 2014 the top bridge chosen by Roads and Bridges is the I-91 bridge in Brattleboro over the West River.

You can read the article here on Roads and Bridge’s web site.

Roads and Bridges also made a site visit earlier in the year and produced a video that you can watch here.

The West Brattleboro Association (WBA) announced the Community Leader of the Year recipients during its annual Holiday Party on Thursday, December 11, at The New England House. The winners of this 4^th annual award are Bill and Judy Daley, owners of the Vermont Country Deli as well as the associated, brand new Market next door.

After living for ten years in Central Vermont, the Daleys came to Brattleboro to purchase the ever-popular delicatessen in 2007. Bill grew up in Cleveland and met Judy, who grew up in Brattleboro, at Miami University (Ohio). She is the daughter of Sylvia and (the late) John Hunter who was president of the Vermont National Bank. Since buying the deli seven years ago, together the Daleys have made it thrive even more, adding many features including a quick-stop facility with extra parking next door.  The new market is in the process of becoming an official Vermont Ambassador Welcome Center, and will be adding an ATM in January. Both Bill and Judy work full time in their Deli.