Why Not Us, Too?

by carrottop | Op/Ed

How I wish Brattleboro would follow Westminsters lead. This mornings Reformer let us know that residents of Westminster will be receiving a mailing with information regarding their “new” trash/recycling program. Included with the mailing will be 52 STICKERS FOR 52 WEEKS OF TRASH …………….. and they’re FREE, FREE, FREE! If residents use more than one bag per week they’ll have to purchase additional bags for $3.00 each. This is a perfect example of those in charge governing and at the same time considering and showing compassion and understanding towards their residents.

I-91 Brattleboro Bridge Replacement Project Update: Week of April 12

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

I-91

On Tuesday, April 21, there will be a formal inspection of the I-91 Bridge. Daylight is needed for the inspection, so the bridge will be closed from approximately 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. At the same time, the PCL team will repair potholes that developed over the winter. I-91 will be closed between Exits 2 and 3 both northbound and southbound. Traffic will be detoured onto VT Route 5.

Northbound I-91 traffic has been relocated onto the southbound bridge. Traffic will remain reduced to one lane in each direction on I-91 until completion of the new bridge. The new bridge will be 104’ wide and is designed to carry all four lanes of traffic –two northbound and two southbound.

Snow, Synchronicity, and Edward Snowden

by Lise | Op/Ed

Maybe it was those snowflakes in our weather forecast, but I had a lot of snow-related synchronicities this week.  It started with the news that a new monument had gone up overnight in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park, not far from the Brooklyn Bridge.  The monument consisted of a bust of Edward Snowden, with his name emblazoned across the column below it in big Roman capitals.  It was an impressive gesture by a group of artists who wrote (as you shall see below) some powerful things about freedom and heroism and the public’s right to know.  And even though the government covered it up, by sending park employees to smother Snowden’s bust in a tarp so no one could see it, civil disobedience had happened and it was noteworthy.  — it’s a nice statue.  

Real People – A Live Show To Benefit WVEW-lp

by WVEW-lpfm | Town News

Brattleboro Comedy Duo Performs Benefit for Local Radio Station

Brattleboro comedians Jay Gelter and Ben Stockman are taking their radio show,REAL PEOPLE with Jay and Ben, out of the recording studio and onto the stage on April 24, 8:00 pm at the Hooker Dunham Theater in Brattleboro, VT to benefit Brattleboro Community Radio.

Inspired by comedy podcasts like Comedy Bang! Bang! and The Dead Author’s Podcast, the show features Gelter and Stockman interviewing the “real people” of Brattleboro, who aren’t real at all, but rather one of them or a special guest playing a bizarre character in a weekly improv tour-de-force. The show airs every Thursday at 10 pm on WVEW-LP 107.7 FM and is posted as a podcast the next day on their website and iTunes.

After Images / Amy Arbus – April 30 through May 24 at Mitchell – Giddings FIne Arts

by Mitchell • Giddings FIne Arts | Arts

April 2015, Brattleboro, Vermont —  Thursday, April 30 an opening reception for an exhibit of acclaimed photographer, Amy Arbus, will be held from from 5 – 8pm at Mitchell • GIddings FIne Arts at 183 Main Street, Brattleboro. 

The exhibit, After Images, will run from April 30 to May 24 and is a series Arbus made in 2011 and 2012 to payhomage to her favorite painters such as Balthus, Cezanne, David, Ingres, Modigliani and Picasso. The images will seem familiar to most viewers. They are photographs of live scenes staged to replicate the powerful effects of original paintings from the early 20th century, Arbus’s team painted costumes, props, and the models themselves. What has materialized is a series of hybrid images that challenges the thin line between painting and art photography.

Volunteer Fair for Nonprofit Board Service

by Not Signed In | Activism

Get on Board Windham County will be hosting its first-ever Meet Your Match event, a community volunteer fair specifically geared towards matching potential board members with nonprofits.

Windham County nonprofits are invited to sign up to have a table at the event. The cost is $35, and registration for nonprofits will close on April 27. Nonprofits should register at http://bit.ly/Board-Match.

Many local nonprofits are seeking to expand and diversify their boards. This event will afford them the opportunity to pitch volunteer service on their board to dedicated and skilled community members. In attendance will be the 2015 cohort of Get on Board Windham County Board Fellows, a group of young professionals who have completed a 20-hour board training course.

“Musical” Backpacks

by tomaidh | Op/Ed

I just received an email from a lawyer and peace activist in Boston named Ralph Lopez, in which he references an .

In the article, Lopez states that “High quality images from just-posted evidence exhibits in the Tsarnaev trial by the US Department of Justice show conclusively that the backpack carried by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a surveillance video, and the one said to contain the bomb which killed eight-year-old Richard Martin, do not match in color.”

Room For One More Team at Summer Soccer at SIT

by Not Signed In | Recreation & Sports

There is still room for a team to join summer soccer in Brattleboro this year, sponsored by the Putney Soccer Club and held on Wednesday evenings at SIT. Eleven teams are not in place and there is room for one more. The season starts on May 13 and runs to the end of August.

If you are interested in entering a team in the league and serving as captain, please email Edwin de Bruijn at labdeb@sover.net or call 802 254 6965.

Also, if you are an individual player looking to join a team, we may be able to help you find one. You can email us at putneysoccerclub@gmail.com. When you do, please tell us a little about yourself, age, skill level, and so on. Thanks.

Brooks House Annunciator

by BusyMom | History

1892:

The old annunciator at the Brooks House, which was on the French system now generally discarded, and which was injured by fire several years ago, has been replaced by a new gravity-drop system of the most approved kind. All the wires run upon the surface instead of in the walls as heretofore, and are brought into an annunciator of 100 drops.

an·nun·ci·a·tor (ə-nŭn′sē-ā′tər)

n.

One that announces, especially an electrical signaling device used in hotels or offices to indicate the sources of calls on a switchboard.

The Millerites

by BusyMom | History

1843:

The third of April has passed, yet the earth, in this region at least, is wrapped in snow instead of fire, as some of our friends, the Millerites, have predicted. So far from burning up, we have been in great danger of freezing to death.

It’s often interesting to look up the back-stories behind the old historical articles.

William Miller, a self-taught preacher, believed that the end times and Second Coming would happen on April 3, 1843. When that date passed, he just kept revising his predictions.  Many followers gave up all their possessions in anticipation of being called to Heaven with the faithful.  Sounds like another preacher that was in the news in recent years!

Selectboard Meeting Notes: Short Meeting, But Over a Million Spent

by cgrotke | Town News

One of the shortest and more convoluted Brattleboro Selectboard meetings in recent memory took place Tuesday night. Board members came and went, the agenda was trimmed and re-arranged, and some major discussion were postponed. Despite the obstacles, over a million dollars worth of projects were set in motion.

Liquor licenses were approved, bids awarded, grants applied for, and the board took their first steps down the path of repairs and renovations to the Municipal Center.

What Brattleboro Really Needs Is A Food Co-op

by tomaidh | Opinion

A real food co-op just like the one we used to know. One where most of the work is done by working members. One where most of the produce is local. One where you can’t select from over 100 varieties of wine or countless designer beers. One where most of the food is nitty-gritty real food, affordable by ordinary people, not high end gourmet stuff.

 What we have now is indistinguishable from a Whole Foods Market or a Trader Joes, except our prices are a little higher.

I’ve been a member of the Co-op since the days on Flat Street. As I’ve watched the “devolution”, I’ve watched the prices go up.

Sharon Myers Presents: The Wedding Gown Project

by Not Signed In | Arts

Sharon Myers is known as a caterer in Brattleboro. She is also an artist who is about to receive her MFA in Fine Arts from Heartwood College of Art in Biddeford, Maine. She works with fabric, mixed media and sculpture. She has drawn on her multiple talents to create a moving installation called “The Wedding Gown Project.” For those who are beyond first (or second or…) marriages there is much in this exhibit that will resonate. Everyone will be drawn in by both the artistry and the execution.

The “Wedding Gown Project” is up for only two days, Saturday, April 11 and Sunday, April 12 at the seventh entrance in the C. F. Church Building at 80 Flat Street. Hours on Saturday are 3:00 – 7:00 PM and on Sunday from 3:00 to 5:00 PM.

Putney School Charitable Work Day

by Not Signed In | Activism

On May 9th, 2015, Putney School students will be hired out into the community to work for a charitable cause. We want you to help!

People from the greater Putney-Brattleboro community can hire students to do yard or housework for $8 an hour, for up to five hours, on Saturday, May 9th. The proceeds from our labor will then go to the Morningside Shelter .

The Morningside Shelter is a local organization dedicated to providing a safe space and ongoing support to families and individuals facing challenges of maintaining stable housing down in Brattleboro. As the only year-round homeless shelter in southeastern Vermont, the Morningside Shelter’s services are in high demand.

Stroll’s 2015 Locavore Index: Vermont Leads The Way Again

by MartinLangeveld | Food

Which states are most committed to locally-sourced food? According to the 2015 Locavore Index, the top four locavore states (in order) are Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire and Oregon.

These four states also topped the 2014 Index, which is compiled annually by Strolling of the Heifers, a Vermont-based local food advocacy group.

“The purpose of the Index is to stimulate efforts across the country to use more local food in homes, restaurants, schools and institutions,”said Orly Munzing, founder and executive director of Strolling of the Heifers.

Revenge! A Reading and Discussion Series at Brooks Library

by Brooks Memorial Library | Books

Revenge! What are the causes of revenge? What are the consequences? Is taking revenge ever justified? Explore this most passionate and provocative of human desires through drama, short stories, and novels. Join Vermont Humanities Scholar and long-time Brooks facilitator Richard Wizansky for an evening of engaged discussion on this universal topic. This week! Andre Dubus, Selected Stories, April 15, at 7 PM. Up next! Russell Banks, The Sweet Hereafter on May 27, 7 PM. Books can be borrowed from the Brooks Library. Join us!

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem at Next Stage on Friday, April 10

by Not Signed In | Music

Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present Americana/roots quartet Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem at Next Stage on Friday, April 10 at 7:30 pm. This album release concert celebrates the brand new CD “Violets Are Blue,” a collection of sugar-free love songs infused with the band’s signature lush vocals, supple grooves, and most of all, joyous and generous spirit.

Rani Arbo & daisy mayhem bring fiddle, guitar, bass and junk percussion to bear on 100 years of American music, from Appalachian ballads to Brue Springsteen covers, songs by contemporary writers, and their own incisive originals. Their sound is “tight, with stylish, unexpected choices” (Acoustic Guitar), a mix of New Orleans grooves, old-time gospel harmonies, bluesy swing fiddle, and fiery electric and acoustic guitars.