The Town of Brattleboro is looking for citizens to serve on the following committees and boards:
ADA Committee
Arts Committee
Citizen Police Communications Committee (CPCC)
Design Review Board (Alternate)
Development Review Board (Alternate)
Fence Viewers
Guilford Chamber Singers, sponsored by Friends of Music at Guilford, is seeking voices for our June concert, A Cappella a la Carte. We are a well-regarded ensemble led by Tom Baehr, veteran director of our 13 concerts since 2014. This concert’s repertoire consists of songs about avians and apians; that is, birds and bees. They include “Skylark,” “Blackbird,” a song about a nightingale, and of course bees and other insects.
With March 7th – election day – drawing closer, I wanted to take a moment to speak to the defamation of my friends and neighbors that has been going on.
Here are some things that have been said over the past few months by landlords:
“No landlord would evict a good tenant”
“You say they’ve been no-cause evicted but didn’t do anything wrong? Well, I’d really like to hear the other side…”
and the most offensive: “Vote No on Article II It hurts responsible tenants”.
On Monday, March 13, at 7 PM at Brooks Memorial Library, the Brattleboro Garden Club will host a free presentation given by Aliza Fassler, a graduate researcher at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, on native bees.
Come to learn about where do bees go in winter; how to distinguish a bee from a wasp or a native bee from a honey bee and which native bee species might be in your yard. In North America there are approximately 4,000 species of wild bees that are critical for pollinating plants in our forests, gardens and fields. Learn about the diversity of bee species in New England and how to help them in your yards and gardens.
NOTICE : This doesn’t mean anyone should move out. It only means that the compassion is misplaced.
Imagine you’re homeless, living in a car for five years, and you hear about a new law that says everyone with an apartment can keep it forever.
They say the endless lease is compassionate >> If you already HAVE a place, you’ll be able to stay your whole life if you want, regardless of a signed agreement, regardless of someone waiting to move in, regardless of homeless people waiting in the snow.
Brattleboro Senior Meals Menu
March 6 to March 10
March 6 Spaghetti w/Meatballs
Spinach
Garlic Toast
Jell-o w/Fruit
Rikki Risatti is running for a one year seat on the school board.
….
Introduce yourself – who are you and why are you running for the school board?
I hope time with school administration may enable more respect of students, guardians, and residents practicing self-governance and nourishing quality food access together.
Why not secure alternative funding for learning (like food, tutoring, college exams, internet) so we don’t ask for invasive income verification?
Why not pay and accredit students to host the candidate election debate forums and post the timer on the screen for all to see?
Sad to say, but we have made the difficult decision to cancel tomorrow’s farmers market at the Winston Prouty Campus. The forecast for this storm with lots of snow and continuing well into the market day is just about the worst kind of timing!
We had been fortunate enough to avoid this scenario so far, but many of our vendors have already made the decision that they wouldn’t be taking the risk, and we don’t want you to take the risk of going out in that weather either.
The Landmark College Academic Speaker Series welcomes syndicated cartoonist Hilary Price to campus on Tuesday, March 14 at 5 p.m. in the Brooks M. O’Brien Auditorium, located in the Lewis Academic Building.
Price’s talk, entitled “How I Became a Cartoonist: A Study in Messing Up” will include insights about how she gets ideas for her award-winning comic strip “Rhymes with Orange”, makes comics and lives a creative life.
“Rhymes with Orange” debuted in 1995, making Price the youngest woman to have a syndicated comic strip. The strip is now done in collaboration with Canadian cartoonist Rina Piccolo. It appears in newspapers internationally, and has appeared in Parade Magazine, People, and in The Library of Congress.
On the surface it looks like an amazing step forward. Eli Lilly, one of the major producers of insulin, (among the three companies that control 90% of the insulin market)1 announced that it is lowering the cost of some of its older insulin products by 70%. It was a shrewd and coldly calculated move to make the company look good in the public eye and fend off the inevitable mandates that the U.S. government is working to implement.
Recently, legislation was passed to cap the price of insulin at $35 a month for people enrolled in the Medicare D program. Democrats tried to get the bill to apply to all Americans but their efforts were stymied by the pharmaceutical lobby that owns more politicians than most other businesses.
Eli Lilly knows that it is just a matter of time before new laws are enacted to lower insulin prices across the board so they made a pre-emptive strike in the insulin wars. According to the New York Times, “Lilly trumpeted its decision as a victory for patients. In reality, though, Lilly’s moves are more limited than they initially appear. Lilly’s existing $35 cap on out-of-pocket payments will be easier for privately insured patients to take advantage of.
Next Tuesday, when we vote on Town Meeting Day, we will have an opportunity to support some of our most afflicted in our community: renters vulnerable to unpredictable no cause evictions. This is Article II on the ballot, the Just Cause Eviction proposed charter change. This is an issue that has been advocated for on state and federal levels as well. I support this fully although I recognize that after some use and experience imperfections may be revealed. This is no different from charter change and if necessary can be rectified with an amending charter change the following year. In the meantime enactment of this legislation will relieve some of the debilitating stress that so many here in Brattleboro and thousands across the state must endure. Nothing is apparent in the proposed language that will have dire consequences for the landlords.
I am a candidate for the Selectboard. If elected I will, in response to some of the landlords most emphatic concerns, propose further action. I will propose first that the Town add an appropriate number of hours to the office currently doing rental inspections. This would enable the inspector to respond quickly to landlord complaints. Tenants could also make complaints against landlords.
Here’s the March 2023 dashboard summary. We continue semi-regular 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.
VT, NH, and MA all seem to be doing weekly updates now, near the end of the week.
AGENDA
I. Call to order
II. Welcome members and guests
III. School Board Update (5 min)
IV. School Administration Report (15 min)
V. New Business (30 min)
Section B of the RAD Just Cause amendment demands for tenants the privilege of an endless lease. RAD says the endless lease is compassionate. Let’s be real here. To demand the option of an endless lease while homeless people endlessly wait is not compassion, it is self-interest. To preach it as compassion shows no thought even of the existence of homeless people. Section B creates a class of priveleged landed tenants and an under-class of permanently homeless people.
Section B) “This charter provision excludes from ‘just cause’ the expiration of a rental agreement as sole grounds for termination of tenancy.”
Below is information that might be helpful to know for March 7th local elections. The Windham Southeast School District Annual Election of School Directors will be held in addition to the Annual Town Meeting Day elections.
The polling place for all three districts in Brattleboro is the American Legion, 32 Linden St., from 7:00 am until 7:00 pm.
Masks are no longer required to enter the American Legion for voting, but they are certainly welcome and will be provided along with hand sanitizer.
PRESS RELEASE
On Thursday, March 2, the Town of Brattleboro Highway Division will be removing 3 hazardous trees on Upper Dummerston Rd, Senator Gannett Drive and the intersection with East Orchard Street. The work is scheduled to begin at 8:00 am and continue through approximately 11:00 am. There will be periods of one lane traffic and periods where the road will be completely closed for up to 20 minutes at a time. Motorists should seek alternate routes and expect delays.
For those who were not already aware of it, Brattleboro resident and author Matt Whalan will be among two speakers at an event on homelessness held at Kellogg Hubbard Library in Montpelier this evening at 6:30 PM and aired live by ORCA Media (via YouTube):
“Dilbert Creator Dropped From Several Publications After Comments | Morning Spice Ep. #5”
Video below.
AGENDA
I. Call to Order / Introductions / Recognition of Visitors
II. Acknowledgment of minutes from January 12, 2023
III. Review of Meeting Norms & Community Support Document
IV. Administrative Report from Principal Jon Sessions
AGENDA
I. CALL TO ORDER – 5:30 p.m. – Kelly Young, Board Chair. Executive Session.
II. EXECUTIVE SESSION under 1 V.S.A. §313(a)(7) Academic records or suspension or discipline of students – WRCC 1st floor Conference Room 198E
