SeVWA’s 2015 E. coli Monitoring of Local River Sites Concluded August 26th

by sevwa.wqmp | Nature

 The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) had its sixth and final monitoring day for the summer of 2015 on Wednesday, August 26th. All of our sites received significant rain in the day prior to sampling and 20 of our 27 sites tested above the “suitability for swimming” standard set by Vermont and the EPA. It is generally recommended to wait 24-48 hours after a significant rainfall to resume swimming in lakes and streams, so keep that in mind when making weekend plans on the water.

The kids are headed back to school and our monitoring season has come to a close. I want to take this time to extend a gigantic thank you to all of our volunteers who took time out of their Wednesday mornings to collect samples and help transport them to where they needed to go. We would not be able to make this program work without all of our amazing volunteers. So….THANK YOU!!!!!

Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda and Notes – September 1, 2015

by cgrotke | Town News

The Town of Brattleboro will consider its role in a planned multi-million dollar expansion of the Exit 1 industrial park at the next regular meeting of the Selectboard, on Tuesday at the Municipal Center on Main Street. The proposed project will be in conjunction with the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation and will extend town services to make more land developable. And keep G. S. Precision in town.

The board will also consider proposed changes to parking ordinances, support for the Groundworks Housing Resource Center planning project, a decision on a cell phone tower, and more. Watch on BCTV, and/or read about it here after the meeting.

Main Street Sidewalk Update #5

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

This is our fifth update on the Main Street Sidewalk Project. For those of you who are regularly downtown, you will have seen a flurry of activity!

This week curbing and sidewalk was removed all the way down to Centre Congregational Church. The contractor was able to install much of the conduit in that area for the underground electrical lines for the street lights. Green Mountain Power has completed the installation of the bases for the new light poles. The contractor has also began replacing some of the ramps and sidewalks in the areas across driveways on the northern end of the project. Our job site even survived the rain storm on Tuesday!

Ruby Sales on 50th Anniv. of Jonathan Daniels Martyrdom

by JohnWilmerding | Spiritual

I wanted all my friends and neighbors here in Brattleboro to have a chance to see this. Ruby Sales, of Atlanta GA, gave this sermon Sunday morning August 23, 2015, at St. James Episcopal Church in Keene, NH, the home congregation of Jonathan Daniels, the 26-year-old white seminarian who was shot and killed, taking a shotgun blast in order to save her life, in white supremacist Alabama on August 20, 1965.

Medicare CGM Access Act of 2015

by Vidda | Health

The first time I knew I was hypo-unaware I understood the danger I was in. Without knowing if my blood sugar is dropping to critically low numbers it was just a matter of time before this peculiar type of Russian Roulette would catch up to me. As vigilant as I am at testing, even I can’t beat those odds.I became a Type I diabetic at the age of 58. Like most Type I diabetics I was born with it. However, I have a rare form of adult onset insulin dependence. For most of my life I enjoyed robust health, unaware that an internal deadly clock was ticking inside of my body.

Groundworks Collaborative to hold Fifth Annual Hike for the Homeless on September 12th 


by Not Signed In | Activism

BRATTLEBORO, VT – 8/26/2015 – Groundworks Collaborative will hold its fifth annual Hike for the Homeless fundraiser on Saturday, September 12 (rain date, September 13th), on Mount Wantastiquet in Hinsdale, NH. There will be two start times, 10am and 12:30pm, each beginning at the Mountain Road trailhead in Hinsdale (an immediate left after the second bridge on Route 119 when coming from downtown Brattleboro).

Registration begins at 9:30 for the 10am start, and at Noon for the 12:30pm start. Whether hiking to the summit or walking the River Trail at its base, participants can anticipate a beautiful late-summer hike and outstanding views of the town of Brattleboro. Hikers may raise funds individually (a minimum of $50 is suggested) or as a team (suggested minimum $250).

All proceeds from the Hike benefit Groundworks Collaborative’s work with families and individuals experiencing homelessness in Brattleboro and surrounding communities.

Birds and Extinction

by spoon | Sci-Tech

    While browsing an old book on birds, published originally in 1897 with several editions through 1916, my attention was caught by a full color plate of the scarlet tanager and I stopped to read the narrative.  The author laments that “the gorgeous coloring has been its snare and destruction.  The densest evergreens could not altogether hide this blazing target for the sportsman’s gun, too often fired at the instigation of city milliners…(it) is now only an infrequent splash on our country roads.”

Killed by A Horse’s Kick: Coincidence or Karma?

by richholschuh | History

Major John Arms, leading early citizen and proprietor of Brattleboro’s notable gathering place known as the Arms Tavern (at the present Retreat farm) died from the kick of a horse on March 6, 1770. This is the very same day, 12 years before in 1758, that Captain Fairbank Moor and his son Benjamin were killed in an attack by Abenaki warriors at their cabin just a few hundred feet away (Brattleboro’s first settler outside of Fort Dummer). John Arms came from a family of frontierspeople and Indian fighters. Coincidence?

Senator Leahy To Join Nonprofits to Mark the Start of Construction of Red Clover Commons

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

− Nonprofits Respond to Damage from Tropical Storm Irene−

Senator Patrick Leahy will join Brattleboro Housing Partnerships and Housing Vermont to celebrate the start of construction of new senior housing. Red Clover Commons, a 55-unit development located on Fairground Road, will replace public housing at Melrose Terrace which was damaged during Tropical Storm Irene. While that damage was repaired, it was clear that seniors and those with disabilities needed to be relocated to a safer site.

I-91 Brattleboro Bridge Replacement Project Update: Week of August 30

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

Blasting operations on the north side of the new bridge will resume the week of August 31. The target time for the blasts is weekdays between 1:30-2:00 pm. To ensure travelers’ safety, rolling roadblocks will be implemented on I-91, and traffic will be stopped for approximately 15 minutes at the Exit 2 northbound on-ramp and at the Exit 3 on-ramps in both directions. Sound impacts associated with the blasting will be minimal.

The Vermont Community Foundation Awards Vermont Partnership Grant to Support the Vermont African American Heritage Trail

by Not Signed In | Travel

Brattleboro. The Vermont Community Foundation has awarded Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity an $11,000 Innovations and Collaborations grant. The grant will support Vermont Partnership’s development of the nearly three-year old Vermont African American Heritage Trail to be more accessible to Vermont school children and families.

The Vermont African-American Heritage Trail includes nineteen sites of importance to black history in the state and brings visitors to Vermont museums and cultural sites where exhibits, tours, and personal explorations illuminate the lives of African Americans for whom the Green Mountain State was part of their identity.

FYI: Brattleboro Freecycle.org

by Tego | Living

 link.

If , like me and several others, you lost track of freecycle once they quit sending out e mails you can go to the above page and rejoin if you still want to participate. You might have to choose a new user name and password first, as I did, but once you get to the page with the requests and offers, it seems pretty easy to use.

Always a Catch

by spinoza | Recreation & Sports

Skill and perseverance are needed to snare a fish in moving water, even more so if it’s a native variety. Of indigenous locals, brook trout are most prevalent, and arguably the most beautiful. They’re coy and sly creatures, and having had about ten million years to perfect their camouflage only enhances superb stealth. A trout can be underfoot and you might never know it. So, a catch is a delight which brings much satisfaction.

In short, to succeed you need to be a refined stalker and trickster. The trout is the one attuned to and at home in the water, not we terrestrials. Its super-sensitivities must be matched or there’s no chance, one false move and it’s usually game over. Within this critical pursuit, selection and presentation of an artificial fly must so evoke a real morsel, the fish is willing to risk his life chomping it.

Interesting Political Analysis

by tomaidh | Politics

From “The Pen” (People’s email network) Today at 7:15 AM (edited)

The Beltway pundits remain condescending and dismissive, which is all the more reason why we need to keep cranking up the people power, to continue to raise the visibility of Bernie Sanders, as he continues to rise in the polls.This week on Meet The Press, they trotted out the big guns, so-called “senior” campaign advisers to pre-emptively and forcefully declare that Donald Trump was NOT going to be the Republican nominee. Chuck Todd has been wrong so many times already, we suppose he needed some faux authoritative reinforcement.

Main Street Sidewalk Update 4

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

This is our fourth update for the Main Street Sidewalk Reconstruction Project. This week our contractor completed all the advanced warning signage installation around town.

The Public Works crew has been working closely with Green Mountain Power to get the new street lights installed as well. We currently have all of the concrete removed at the new pole locations and 11 of the light bases are installed.

BCTV Channel 8 & 10 Schedules for the Week of 8/24/15

by BCTVProg | Media

BCTV ch. 8 schedule for the week of 8/24/15

Monday, August 24, 2015

12:00 am Valley Homegrown: Barishi 7/20/15

1:00 am Still a Paper tiger? China’s Environmental Courts

1:56 am 1st Wed: Edward Snowden & The NSA

3:30 am Dartmouth College Talk: Making Sense of the Mad Men Era

Qigong for Healing and Living Fully – Stories from China

by Not Signed In | Health

Thomas Garbarino license acupuncturist and partitioner of qigong and taiji quan just recently returned from an epic pilgrimage to Wu Dang mountain in China. He will be sharing his experiences and stories as well as presenting new material to deepen our understanding of healing through the practice of qigong. All are welcomed.

You are your best healer! Come learn how each and everyone of us is born with the innate gift to heal ourselves. In this half-day intensive, you will experience simple and profound ways to awaken your body’s innate healing ability while deepening your capacity to relax and enjoy your life more completely. Participants will leave with a renewed and empowered sense of health and well-being. All are welcome; no experience required.

Beginner’s Hunyuan Chen Style Taiji Quan Class in Dummerston, VT

by Not Signed In | Dummerston

Beginner’s Hunyuan Taiji Quan is a 14 week series that introduces the principles of alignment, balance, correct movement, qi (vital energy) cultivation. Each week participants will learn a new movement of the Hunyuan 12 movement taiji quan form. Through dedicated practice, students will complete the form by the end of the series.

Participants will also learn chan si gong (silk reeling) exercises to help open and relax the joints while simultaneously nourishing the vital qi and blood of the body. All are foundational practices to re-condition the mind/body connection, deepening one’s capacity to relax, release stress, improve balance, and build core strength.

Broadband Choices in Brattleboro?

by TechFan | Opinion

My $39.99/month Comcast internet promo ends this month. Normal price is $67/month, so I need an alternative. I scoured the web for DSL and fiber optic availability and pricing. Unfortunately, that info is published no where, so I contacted potential companies directly and compared services.

There’s three residential broadband providers in town- 2 DSL, 1 Cable Internet. Only 1 out of 3 companies offers transparant pricing online. Ironically, it happens to be the most hated company in America, Comcast. Instead of capitalizing on that, the two relatively small, local DSL companies maintain a website circa 1995- no way to register for service, check prices, corresponding speeds, verify coverage area. Basically useless, secretive, uninformative websites.