Construction Update Brattleboro-Hinsdale Bridge November 9, 2023

by Not Signed In | Hinsdale

Crews are making good progress driving the 30″ diameter steel pipes to bedrock to serve as the foundation of Pier 1. Nine are to be driven, and it is hoped they will be completed this week. If not, it will continue until completion next week.

Because of the noise, pile driving is only authorized from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Once the ninth pile for Pier 1 is driven to bedrock there will be no more pile driving for this project.

The pile driving frames and platform will be removed next week, and preparations will begin for the arrival of a drill rig the following week. The drill rig will clean out the top 80 feet of each pile so they can be reinforced with concrete and reinforcing steel (rebar).

WSESD Finance Committee Meeting Agenda

by Not Signed In | Education

Agenda
1. Approval of Minutes
2. FY25 Preliminary Budget Development Planning Discussion
3. Capital Project Implementation updates, discussion to include; Recommendation on selection of prequalified Contractors eligible to bid on the Oak Grove Heat pump & HVAC controls project
4. Recommendation to Board to Approve Warrants and Payrolls

The Rasa String Quartet at Next Stage

by hahrenholz | Music

Next Stage Arts presents Boston-based Rasa String Quartet at Next Stage on Saturday, December 9 at 7:30 pm.

The Rasa String Quartet celebrates the art of strumming and works inspired by strummed instruments, for string quartet! This program pairs old masterworks from Beethoven, Debussy, and Turina alongside newly celebrated classics from Jessie Montgomery and Caroline Shaw:

Program:
Claude Debussy: String Quartet in G Minor, II. Assez vif et bien rythmé
Jessie Montgomery: Strum
Caroline Shaw: Valencia
Joaquín Turina: The Bullfighter’s Prayer
L.V. Beethoven: String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 74 “Harp”

Selectboard Meeting Notes – Brattleboro Discusses Big Issues with State Delegation

by cgrotke | Town News
Repeat Offenders

The Brattleboro Selectboard held an extended conversation with members of the state legislative delegation, handing them a long list of things that Brattleboro would like help with – money, staff, changes to laws, and so on.

Reps said they were working on many items already, but were eager to stay involved and work together to find solutions to housing, justice, addiction, mental health, crime, and other issues plaguing the ‘boro.

Brattleboro Taxes and Utilities Due November 15, 2023

by Not Signed In | Town News

The second installment of the 2023 Brattleboro Real Estate and Personal Property Taxes will be due by 5 p.m. on November 15, 2023. Payments made after November 15, 2023 will have an additional 1% interest added to the unpaid balance.

The Town of Brattleboro utility bills are also due by 5 p.m. on November 15, 2023. Payments made after November 15, 2023 will have an additional 1% interest, as well as an 8% penalty added to the unpaid balance.

The Lost Island – A Literary Cocktail Hour

by BrattleboroLitFest | Books

On Friday, November 10 at 5:00 pm, the Brattleboro Literary Festival invites you to join us for an online conversation with New York Times bestselling author Adam Goodheart interviewed by Tom Clynes, discussing Goodheart’s new book, The Last Island. Register at http://bit.ly/LitCocktail33 . Free.

In November 2018, a young American missionary kayaked onto a remote beach in the Indian Ocean and was killed by indigenous islanders wielding bows and arrows. News of that fatal encounter on North Sentinel Island—a small patch of land in the Andaman archipelago—fascinated people around the world. Most were unaware such a place existed in our time: an island whose hunter-gatherer inhabitants still live in near-total isolation.

Argentinian Duo Lerner and Moguilevsky To Perform at Next Stage 12/2

by hahrenholz | Music

Next Stage Arts presents Argentinian duo César Lerner and Marcello Moguilevsky’s unique musical fusion of klezmer, tango, jazz, and South American folk music at Next Stage on Saturday, December 2 at 7:30 pm.

“Lerner & Moguilevsky are masters of their craft, threading various cultural ideas together into something new and exciting,” says Keith Marks, Executive Director of Next Stage Arts. “Bringing an artist to Putney from Argentina is an exciting opportunity. The thought that we’re bringing artists from around the world to our region feels positive for our community.”

WSESD Social Justice Committee Meeting Minutes

by Not Signed In | Education

III. Updates

Mike Kelliher gave an update on efforts to recruit a more diverse staff. The district has just launched an employee referral program. For certain positions, if an employee refers a candidate who doesn’t already work for the organization, and they end up being hired, the referring employee will receive a bonus: $250 at time of hiring and $250 after six months of employment. There have already been a couple of inquiries. As of today there are 38 open positions but not all are part of this referral program – it is reserved for positions which the leadership team has identified as difficult to fill.

Brattleboro Veterans’ Day Closings

by Not Signed In | Town News

In observance of Veterans’ Day, all Brattleboro Town Offices will be closed on Friday, November 10, 2023, with the exception of emergency services. Parking is free at all metered spaces and in the pay-and-display lots on Friday, November 10. All other violations will be enforced.

Brooks Memorial Library will be closed on Friday, November 10, 2023.

BCTV Schedules – Week of November 6, 2023

by BCTVProg | Media

BCTV Channel 1078 Weekly Listing for 11/6/23

Monday, November 6, 2023

5:55 am BUHS Athletic Hall of Fame – BHS/BUHS Athletic Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 10/28/23

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

9:00 am Energy Week with George Harvey – Energy Week #546 – 11/2/2023

10:00 am Brattleboro Literary Festival – Difficult Discussions– Catherine Newman & Laura Zigman

False Hope

by RDavis | Health

People who have to deal with the burden of an incurable disease often hold out hope that there will be a cure before the disease takes their lives. Diseases such as ALS, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Type 1 diabetes and many types of cancer as well as a host of other diseases may have treatments to alleviate symptoms but the disease still moves in often relentless and unpredictable ways.

Hoping for a cure borders on delusional thinking partly because of the time it takes to develop treatments and also because of the cost of any curative regimen. A recent news item about sickle cell anemia drives this point home all too clearly.

A few years ago Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier received the Nobel prize for their work with the gene editing technology called CRISPR. CRISPR is an acronym for clustered regularly interspersed palindromic repeats. It is a process that allows scientists to change the structure of genes.

Kat Wright and Brett Hughes Holiday Show at Next Stage

by hahrenholz | Music

PUTNEY – Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present singer/songwriters Kat Wright and Brett Hughes with their quartet performing songs of the season at Next Stage on Friday, December 1 at 7:30 pm.

Kat Wright and Brett Hughes, two of Vermont’s most beloved songbirds, join forces once again this December for their 10th annual Vermont holiday tour. The show, a true Christmas gift featuring Tyler Bolles (Swale, Rough Francis) on upright bass and multi-instrumentalist Will Seeders (Carling & Will, Caitlin Canty), offers songs of holiday heartbreak and holiday cheer. It is bejeweled with storytelling, originals, and beloved classics alike. It’s guaranteed to warm your heart, pique your nostalgia, and create a loving container for those good ol’ holiday blues that we all know so well.

Brattleboro Selectboard – Agenda and Notes – November 7, 2023

by cgrotke | Town News

Downtown Brattleboro surveillance is on the agenda for the next regular meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard. New $45,000 police cameras will be purchased for the intersection of High and Main so that the Town can watch everything you do there, in addition to watching everything you do at the Transportation Center. Some local stores will join in and add their cameras to the surveillance system, too.

Brattleboro’s sludge removal has become more expensive and the board will approve nearly $45,000 contract increase for just six months of disposal costs.  The board will also discuss their new Legislative Agenda (things they want the State to help fix), a bike path proposal for Rt. 5, discontinuing part of Melrose Street, ordinance changes, and more.

You can request other items not on the agenda during public participation, as long as you don’t bring up something that annoys the Chair.

Brattleboro and VT COVID-19 Regional Dashboard Summary – November 2023

by cgrotke | Health

Here’s the November 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 seem to be doing weekly updates, near the end of the week. All three have changed their dashboards since the start, so it is now tough to easily compare where we stand. Variant updates are every two weeks.

Construction Update Brattleboro-Hinsdale Bridge – Nov 3, 2023

by Not Signed In | Hinsdale

Crews have finished driving the first of nine 30″ diameter steel pipes to bedrock to serve as the foundation of Pier 1. The distance to bedrock was 150+/- feet.

Pile driving is very loud, so it is only authorized from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. It is anticipated to continue through Thanksgiving week. This is the last of the foundation work for this project

Serious Word Play

by AnneODyne | Op/Ed

With so much trouble in the world, in so many realms, I can’t help but ask myself, what is my responsibility? Where to begin? Problems seem innumerable. Where is the onus? 

Yet today, for some reason, I looked at that word, onus, and couldn’t stop seeing it as comprised of its parts; on us. The burden is… on us. Is that etymology on purpose? An answer to the elusive question hidden in plain sight?