Brattleboro Town Meeting Day Absentee Ballots Must Be Requested

Town Meeting Day and Windham Southeast School District Director elections are coming up on Tuesday, March 7, 2023.

Absentee ballots MUST be requested. Unlike the November General Election, ballots for Town Meeting Day in Brattleboro are NOT automatically mailed to all active registered voters. Ballots will be available on February 15, 2023.


My Good Friend Mark Is Looking For An Apartment

I have a friend, who wishes to rent an apartment in Windham County. His name is Mark Laurence. I have known him for about 5 or 6 years. Through a VA program, Mark’s rent can be up to $1,000 per month. He currently lives and rents in Massachusetts.


I think that Mark’s good character makes him a desirable tenant. He is guided by an internal compass, so that he can be counted on to meet his obligations. In fact, Mark goes beyond his obligations. When he visits me and Donna, he cannot stop himself from noticing something that needs to be fixed, and insists on taking care of it. He is skilled, and has a knack for knowing exactly what needs to be done. (He even fixed a clothes dryer for us which we thought needed to be junked, and now works perfectly) At his present residence, Mark has made repairs at no charge to his landlady.


Brattleboro Overnight Parking Ban Reminder

As we have had little snowfall this winter and there are storms predicted in the coming days, the Department of Public Works would like to remind everyone that the winter parking ban is in effect.

*Overnight parking is forbidden on all streets in the town of Brattleboro.  


Selectboard Meeting Notes – Public Restrooms Desired, But Where To Put Them?

selectboard jan 19 2023

Public restrooms were a major topic of discussion for the board at the regular Tuesday meeting. Nothing, of course, was decided. The board also allowed the Assessors ask Representative Town Meeting Representatives to agree to a town-wide re-appraisal of taxable properties.

There were financial and EMS updates, and a discussion of further revising meeting agenda formats to reflect anticipated times of agenda items. (Good luck with that… says this reporter.)


Representative Town Meeting Member Poll

The Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office will be emailing out a poll to Representative Town Meeting Members regarding their interest in Town provided childcare for RTM. This email will come from executive assistant Jessica Sticklor (email address: jsticklor@brattleboro.org). Please be on the lookout for this email and please return the poll as soon as possible, especially if you are interested in Town provided childcare for RTM.


Brattleboro Land Records System Maintenance Scheduled

The Brattleboro Town Clerk’s office would like to notify the public that on January 24, 2023, our land records system will be down for maintenance, both on-site and remote. This will impact all recording and land records searching capabilities through the system. We will be back up and running on Wednesday, January 25, 2023. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please reach out with any questions – 802-251-8157 or townclerk@brattleboro.org


iBrattleboro Interview: John R. Potter

John R. Potter

We took some time to ask Brattleboro’s new Town Manager, John Potter, a few questions about his return to New England and thoughts about the town and his new job.
….

Welcome to Brattleboro!  It’s always fun to catalog initial impressions.  When you look around Brattleboro, what do you see and how does it look  to you?

The last time I was in Brattleboro before interviewing for the Town Manager position was around thirty years ago when I came to town to buy a couple of draft horses for a woodlot operation I was running in Massachusetts. When returning this winter, the town looks very similar to what I remembered from years ago — a classic Vermont river town with kind and welcoming people who really care about their community.


BCTV Schedules – Week of January 16, 2023

BCTV Channel 1078 Weekly Schedule for 1/16/23

Monday, January 16, 2023

5:00 am Brooks Memorial Library Events – The Buddha’s Politics as a Religious Leader 11/16/22

6:40 am Brattleboro Literary Festival – Janice Nimura & Allison Gilbert

8:00 am Democracy Now! – Democracy Now! Daily Broadcast

9:00 am The Talk, Vermont – Hopes and Challenges of Black Democrats


If Someone Reminded Us that King Called His Gov.”The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World”

What if someone of consequence and world attention, difficult for US monopolized and controlled media to ignore, reminded us that one year before receiving a bullet to his brain, King had made bold print headlines in newspapers worldwide reading,”KING CALLS US “GREATEST PURVEYOR OF VIOLENCE IN THE WORLD..”[1]

Would it not weaken US deep state media credibility as it tried to explain how this world shaking event in the life of Martin Luther King had not been known by millions who celebrate his birthday on a national holiday for a great civil rights leader? – the only American, so honored.


WSESD Board Meeting Agendas for Executive Sessions

NOTICE OF BOARD MEETING
The Windham Southeast School District Board will meet at 5:00 p.m. on Monday,
January 16, 2023 remotely via Zoom. Purpose: 1VSA §313 (a)(4)
Note: The Zoom link for this meeting will be provided by a separate party to those
involved in the Executive Session.


Brattleboro Traffic Safety Committee Meeting Agenda

1. Minutes – November 17, 2022
2. Public Participation
3. Monthly Report on Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Traffic Incidents– For November and December
4. Monthly Report on Traffic Data Collection – for November and December
5. Street and Sidewalk Safety Policy Safety Action Requests
(a) Poor Lighting at intersection of Spruce and Western Avenue – David Sullivan


Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda & Notes – January 17, 2023

The Brattleboro Selectboard will take an almost-final look at the proposed FY24 budget at their next regular meeting. Items of interest – the FY23 budget may be overspent, the Town Attorney gets a raise to $120,563, construction of some sort of public bathrooms might get approved, and more.

You can bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.


Cecilia Zabala and Eugene Friesen at Next Stage

PUTNEY, VT— 1/12/2023 — Next Stage Arts Project presents an evening of global music with Cecilia Zabala and Eugene Friesen at Next Stage on Saturday, February 11 at 7:30 pm.

Cecilia Zabala of Buenos Aires, Argentina is a rising star on the global music scene. With 10 CDs and close to 20 years international touring experience to her credit, Zabala’s music embodies the deep soul of the acoustic guitar, from its Iberian and North African roots, to its versatility as a worldwide voice of modern musical expression.

Cecilia Zabala’s distinction as a performing artist is multi-dimensional. From a technical perspective, she is a master singer and instrumentalist, conservatory trained, and a respected guitar instructor in the cosmopolitan center of Buenos Aires. But her musical vision is far from staid. Her music bridges genres from the European classical guitar tradition to Brazilian bossa nova and MPB, from Chilean Nuevo Cancion and its Argentine relative, Nuevo Cancionero, to global jazz. Her music combines many elements of global folkloric music, in a synthesis that bridges so many styles and genres that it can fairly be described as “sui generis,” or without comparison. In one respect, the essence of her artistic identity is as a singer songwriter, but with a poetic rather than narrative character that seems distinctly South American. Her music is dreamlike, and steeped in the deep soul of her native Argentina, and by extension, Spain. In performance, whether solo or with an ensemble, Zabala is mesmerizing, from start to finish. As an instrumentalist, her performances are hypnotic. As a singer and presenter, she’s both seductive, and a bit of a sorceress, or as they say in Argentina, a “bruja.”


Gordon Hayward Talks About Art & the Gardener at Next Stage Arts on 1/29 at 4pm

Gordon Hayward will give an illustrated talk for just over an hour on the design elements shared by the painter and garden designer. This talk comes out of Hayward’s 2008 book Art and the Gardener (Gibbs Smith). Admission is by donation, and all proceeds will directly benefit Next Stage Arts and Sandglass Theater. Tickets may be purchased at nextstagearts.org or at the box office on the day of the event.

Juxtaposing an image on the large screen of a fine painting (Van Gogh, Monet, Magritte, Derain, Renoir, Klimt, Rousseau….) next to a garden image, Hayward will explore a variety of elements of composition: straight lines vs. curved lines in paintings as well as paths and planted beds; the itinerary of the eye; positive and negative space (as in the positive space of planted beds and the negative space of adjacent lawn); color, light and shadow, the role of background, placing easels to paint as being akin to placing garden chairs to sit.