Welcome to January 2021. Here is the continuation of daily COVID-19 dashboard numbers from the Vermont Department of Health, Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, and MA and NH counties that surround Brattleboro. Scroll down the new comments for the latest.
World governments are trying to deal with the complexity of vaccinating enough of their populations to provide an adequate level of herd immunity to be able to declare that the COVID 19 pandemic is under control. Having a Darwinian health care system and a lack of federal leadership means the U.S. will most likely lag behind the rest of the world in vaccine rollout. Experts are guessing that anywhere from 70-90 percent of people need to be vaccinated to meet herd immunity efficacy .
One of the major problems that all countries face is the fact that no one really knows how the pandemic will play out, even under the best of vaccine rollout scenarios. In addition, there are many unknowns about how vaccines work and how the virus behaves.
To kick off the new year, the Brattleboro Selectboard will hear a report and recommendations from the Community Safety Review Committee. The board will also consider an increase to Human Services funding, contemplate mailed ballots for Town Meeting Day, and call for volunteers to serve on committees.
AGENDA
I. CALL TO ORDER – 6:00 p.m. – David Schoales, Board Chair
II. RECOGNITION OF VISITORS
III. CONSENT AGENDA
• CLERK’S REPORT – Approval of Minutes – December 16, 2020
• FINANCE
Warrants of December 1, 2020
As 2020 coasts to a close, it feels unusually difficult to write a year-end essay that encapsulates all the things that happened to us this year. Even a personal essay would be too long to write, let alone read. But this sort of thing hasn’t stopped me before, so what follows are the highlights, by which I mean most memorable and important happenings of 2020 from my own perspective. Even this isn’t easy because processing experience takes time and a lot of this stuff just happened or is still going on. But here we go: Pause, rewind, and….
Visit the Winter Farmers’ Market Online Shop at https://openfoodnetwork.net/brattleboro-winter-farmers-market/shop#/shop today!
Orders can be placed from 9AM Monday morning through 9 AM Thursday morning for a Saturday Curbside Pick up from the Market, every Saturday through March at the C.F. Church Building, 80 Flat St. Downtown Brattleboro.
SNAP/EBT customers can turn $10 into $40 each week through January with market match coupons thanks to grants from NOFA-VT, C&S Wholesale Grocers, New England Grassroots Fund, Brattleboro Savings & Loan, and individual gifts from caring community members.
From the 1950’s film “White Christmas”
• What would be a novelty up here in Vermont? (Bing Crosby)
• Who knows? Maybe we could dig up a Democrat? (Danny Kaye)
• They’d stone him (Crosby)
It’s time to look around and jot down things you’ve noticed around Brattleboro. Such as:
Temperatures in the 50’s and river flooding after heavy rains, for Christmas.
Potholes getting an early start…
Print Town book has been published…
AGENDA
I. CALL TO ORDER – 4:30PM – Anne Beekman
II. Recognition of Visitors
III. Approval of December 7, 2020 Minutes
IV. Policy Review – Updates
• D9 – Alcohol and Drug-Free Workplace (required)
• F14 – Admission of Non-Resident Tuition Students (Recommended)
Brattleboro Senior Meals Menu December 28 to January 1, 2021
IMPORTANT INFORMATION AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MENU
Dec. 28 General Tso’s Chicken
Basmati Rice
Oriental Vegetables
Mandarin Oranges
BCTV Channel 8 / 1075 schedule for the week of 1/4/21
Monday, January 4, 2021
5:00 am Rotary Cares – Ep 31 – Venu Rao and Lawrence Penna
5:35 am New England Youth Theatre presents – NEYT’s Romeo and Juliet in COVID Times
7:30 am Brattleboro Literary Festival – Uncovering the Past with Maya Shanbhag Lang and Jessica Pearce Rotondi
8:00 am Democracy Now! – Democracy Now! Daily Broadcast
The recent situation with COVID has resulted in some hard truths for the Brattleboro VFW. Clubs have taken a beating financially, along with a lot of other businesses.
We have had to cancel all our functions since March. No dinner/dances, birthday parties, wedding receptions, regular bingos, cancer or Brattleboro Firefighter’s fundraising bingos, banquets, holiday parties, etc. etc.
We had to shut down completely for three months starting in March, but still the bills came in. Some grants from the government helped pay some, but not all of those bills.
What’s the safest party in town? The one on the radio!
On Thursday, December 31, please join 107.7fm Brattleboro Community Radio WVEW.org, for an all-day, most-of-the-night party to bid farewell to 2020…please!…and welcome in 2021.
We’re suspending (most of) our regular programming to play festive dance tunes provided by eleven of your favorite WVEW DJs. And it’s all commercial-free and local!
The Brattleboro Community Safety Review Committee will meet on Monday, December 28, 2020, at 6:00pm using Zoom (with no physical location due to the ongoing social distancing requirements of COVID-19). The attached agenda contains information about how to access the meeting remotely, including the required “passcode.”
Thirty-five years ago, the Town of Brattleboro gave a homeless shelter run by Faith Ministries a December 25 deadline to close.
The Christmas deadline — a public relations blunder — was dramatic enough to garner national attention, but the real issue was articulated in a press release in which Wally & Emily White said the following:
“At a time when many municipal administrations are asking churches to shelter the homeless, in Brattleboro the Zoning Board is trying to close a church run shelter. If they succeed, up to eight homeless men may face the cruel winter with nowhere else to go. One of them nearly died of exposure last year while sleeping in a dumpster.”
The elite American ruling class, aka Congress, has once again proven that they do not understand or respect the hardship that a majority of Americans are experiencing. They are also making it clear that they are only willing to offer crumbs to a starving population.
The most recent stimulus package that just passed after months of political posturing is a slap in the face to most Americans. It provides a one-time check of $600 to people whose income is below $75,000. The people who crafted this legislation have no idea what $600 buys in the real world. I suspect most of them never shop for their own necessities, never clean their own houses and could not tell you what a gallon of milk, a gallon of heating oil or a package of toilet paper costs.
Here’s what the state of Vermont says about gathering during the holidays:
For the period from December 23 – January 2, one household may gather with one other trusted household. That is a maximum of two households gathering during this period.
Staying home and with people you live with is still the lowest risk. Gathering with people you do not live with is not recommended for people who are at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19 or people who care for them.
If you do gather, the Health Department strongly encourages getting tested 7 days afterwards.
If you gather with anyone from out of state, everyone in both households must quarantine for 14 days, or 7 days with a negative test.
The travel policy has not changed. If you travel outside of Vermont, you must follow quarantine requirements.
Every year at Christmastime, our household goes a little crazy with holiday and seasonal preparations. We play Christmas music from Thanksgiving on, make presents, shop, bake cookies, eat cookies, put cookies away so we’ll stop eating cookies, make chocolates, see above, wrap presents, plan meals, shop some more. Truth is, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure. It makes you a little corny to love Christmas, especially the way I do. But this year seems different. I believe we have a valid excuse to try to keep up good cheer. To do otherwise would be morbid, and morbid is not what you want to be during a global pandemic. But it’s not easy, especially with all the grim tidings we’ve been treated to lately.
Youth Services is seeking volunteers to serve on its Court Diversion panels in the New Year. Court Diversion is a voluntary, confidential alternative to court proceedings for certain juveniles and adult cases referred to Court Diversion on an individual basis by the State’s Attorney’s Office.
According to Sally Struble, Youth Services’ Director of Restorative Justice Programs, its underlying intent is to repair harm that is caused by the crime and to address underlying conditions that led to the offense. Youth Services relies on community volunteers to represent community values to hold the person who offended accountable for his or her conduct.
In observance of the Christmas holiday:
Brattleboro Town offices will close at 12:00pm on Thursday, December 24, and will be closed on Friday, December 25, 2020, with the exception of emergency services.
Brooks Memorial Library is closed to the public at this time. The curbside service will end at 12:00pm on Thursday, December 24, and will not be available on Friday, December 25. Curbside service will resume at 10:00am on Saturday, December 26, 2020.
