I hope all of you will turn out for the sole meeting the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will hold for public feedback on the proposed Post Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) Entergy hastily submitted to the NRC in December 2014. NRC meeting is February 19, 6 to 9 pm. Address and NRC notice is here: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2015/15-004.i.pdf
PROPOSED BRATTLEBORO CHARTER AMENDMENT INFORMATION SHEET
Proposed amendments to Brattleboro’s Charter are on the March 3, 2015 ballot. The Brattleboro Selectboard asks you to consider the following when voting.
TOWN MEETING TERM LIMITS
Brattleboro’s Town Meeting is both participatory and representative democracy. Up to 155 residents get elected and gather annually to make budget and policy decisions for the Town. It is anti-democratic to ban Brattleboro residents from Town Meeting because they have attended 6 years in a row. Term limits would bar many residents who now attend Town Meeting, and the institutional memory they bring with them would be lost. Right now there are 25 open Town Meeting slots, so anyone interested in joining already can. Term limits actually could empty out Town Meeting so there would not even be a quorum.
Library technology: All Your Questions Answered! Join Reference Librarian Jeanne Walsh on the first Tuesday (4 PM to 6 PM) and first Friday (11 AM to 1 PM) of the month for one-on-one help on the various aspects of library technology, such as downloading e-books and e-audio; accessing your library account to place holds, renew your items, suggest new titles for the collection, make lists of your favorite titles to share with your fellow library users.
Get help with online tasks like filling out forms and emailing attachments.…and more. NO QUESTIONS ARE TOO SMALL OR TOO SILLY! Bring your devices if you have them: iPads, smartphones, laptops, etc.
It is extremely hard to find 100,000 people to sign a White House “We the People” petition, in order to qualify for an Official White House response. There have been a lot of marijuana, cannabis, hemp, and medical marijuana White House petitions. None of them have received the response the petitioners want to hear, so we all just keep filing more petitions, hoping that attitudes up on The Hill will change. This new 2015 Make Marijuana Legal! petition is really dragging its feet, averaging only 100 signatures a day. This petition needs help!
UPCOMING I-91 CLOSURE NORTHBOUND & SOUTHBOUND: Wednesday Night (2/18) 7:00 pm – 6:00 am and Thursday Night (2/19) 7:00 pm – 6:00 am.
Night work on the new bridge will continue at Route 30. Night work will be conducted Sunday night, February 22nd thru Friday night, February 27th (weather dependent).
I-91
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.
ON EXHIBIT at Brooks Library in February:
MAIN FLOOR: Sequencing paintings by local artists and students River Gallery School of Art. The RGS is a vibrant hub for Brattleboro’s artistic community, with bright, spacious studios on Main Street overlooking the Whetstone Brook.
Founded in 1976, RGS offers classes, community workshops, and summer and school vacation programs for students of all ages. Our core faculty members are all professional working artists, and teach a wide range of visual media including all types of painting, drawing, printmaking, and encaustics. RGS also partners with community organizations to offer classes to seniors and adults with physical and cognitive challenges
Join independent scholar, David Mulholland, in his talk Handed Down from the Trade, Wednesday, February 18, 7:00 PM, in the library’s meeting room.
Imagine growing up in an America grasping with the horrors and social havoc of its slavery past that you personally despise. Then imagine discovering that your ancestors participated extensively in slavery, prospered from it, and influenced public policy to set people, states, and a nation on a path to spread slavery, to engage in a Civil War, and to undertake an arduous Civil Rights struggle.
Quieting one’s mind can often feel like an overwhelming task. During this half-day workshop, participants will learn simple yet effective ways to quiet the busy mind, also known as the “Monkey Mind”. Through the practice of Qigong we will gradually let go of the limits of our acquired self and open up to the infinite experience of our true nature. Participants will leave with a renewed and empowered sense of health and well-being.
Qigong consists of simple movements and breathing practices that relax the physical body, calm the mind and raise the spirit. It is an excellent form of preventative healthcare, and also used in treating major illnesses and minor ailments.
On Monday, February 23rd, at 5:00 PM, all West Brattleboro businesses are invited to discuss business and economic development ideas with Brattleboro and Windham County development organizations. Representatives will be present from Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, Windham Regional Commission and the Town of Brattleboro.
The meeting (which was postponed from the original date two weeks ago due to a snowstorm) will take
place in the central conference room at the 55 Marlboro Road building and is being organized by the West Brattleboro Association. (55 Marlboro Rd. is the long building with Central Appliance at its right corner. Use the front center door and head to the back.) Light refreshments will be provided.
There will be no mailing of Selectboard concerns regarding the Charter change proposals. The media, it was deemed, will be enough of a loudspeaker for the board’s concerns.
Much of the upcoming Pay As You Throw system was voted into being, though the issue of who will be educating the public remains to be decided, while Moss Kahler and Waste Zero discuss the possibility working together.
The Department of Public Works has a plan to save significant funds by doing the Union Hill intersection improvements in-house, a question of local-but-not-lowest bids delayed the awarding of a bid for a snack bar, and the calendar of events will no longer be read by the board.
Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present indie/folk/chamber-pop quintet Winterpills, plus roots-rock/junk-folk trio Rusty Belle at Next Stage on Saturday, February 21 at 7:30 pm.
One of the most exciting bands to emerge from Northampton, MA in recent years, Winterpills plays haunting, delicate, dynamic music with shimmering melodies and aching lyrics. Critically praised as a mirror of sorrows and a beacon of hope, the music of Winterpills – true to the band’s name – is medicine for weary hearts.
Do you write poetry? Or perhaps you write prose ? Either way this Friday you will have a chance to read your work in front of an audience.
This Friday, February 20th, is the third Friday of the month, and at 7:30 PM on every third Friday, Write Action hosts the Open Reading.
We meet at the Blue Dot Studio, in the Hooker Dunham Building to share our poems and stories. Each person gets about 7 minutes
What: Arriving Together At the Power of Mutual Credit – offered by John Root jr of Just Abundance, Common Good Finance and rCredits.
Where: 15 Grove St, Brattleboro, VT 05301 (Behind the Stone Church)
When: Wednesday night, Jan 18, 6:30-9pm and subsequent Wednesday eves.
The first two sessions are historical and conceptual: First, the history of money and control of the banksters, with the emphasis on American history of money. “Why is the almighty dollar the basis for the American Empire?”
The Brattleboro Selectboard has drafted and is considering adopting and mailing the following “Fact Sheet” related to the proposed Charter changes on the upcoming March ballot. The mailing to all residences will cost under $3000.
Below you’ll find an attachment that included the draft text being considered, as it appeared in the Selectboard meeting materials for their February 17 meeting, to be held later tonight. If approved, you will also get a copy in the mail.
PUTNEY- On February 20th and 21st Sandglass welcomes the puppet artist, Amanda Maddock, with a new collaborative work, Do Elephants Dream of Eclectic Sheep? In this piece the audience is invited to visit the bedroom and mind of a slumbering elephant whose dreams are just beginning to unfold. The elephant begins to question her fate as the contents of her room and mind reveal messages either fraught with meaning or frivolous…or perhaps both…or neither? Time, scale, character transformation, creatures and objects will be awakened, unpacked, and opened to interpretation.
This piece will be presented as part of Sandglass Theater’s New Visions Series, which serves as a laboratory for new works by artist in the field of puppetry and movement-based theater.
Bipartisan initiative would boost Vermont’s biomass industry
Burlington, VT—This afternoon in Montpelier, Rep. Peter Welch announced bipartisan legislation that would make it more affordable for Vermonters to install wood heating systems in their homes or businesses.
The Biomass Thermal Utilization(BTU) Act would expand the existing renewable energy tax credit to include wood, or “biomass thermal,” heating systems. Welch made the announcement at National Life Group’s Montpelier campus. The company installed a wood heating system in 2010 that has reduced its carbon footprint by 45 percent and heating costs by 50 percent.
The PCL+FIGG Team will conduct the next on-site “trail talk” for the Public on Saturday, February 21, 2015. There has been a lot of progress at the I-91 Brattleboro Bridge project site, which will be shared with attendees. The talks will originate at the West River Trail near the marina. The trail talk will be led by Caleb Linn, Project Manager for PCL (lead contractor) and Garrett Hoffman, Design Manager for FIGG (bridge designer).
The Town of Brattleboro would like to remind everyone that the snow emergency ban is in effect.
Snow and ice will be removed from Western Ave this evening. If they have enough time then they will work on Main St and the North Bridge Down.
Parked vehicles in the downtown area must be removed by 10:30pm or they will be towed at the owner’s expense.
Guilford, Vt. – Friends of Music at Guilford, now in its 49th year of producing concerts and stage projects in the region, is looking for a few more singers to participate in its A Cappella à la Carte season finale on Saturday, June 13.
The Guilford Chamber Singers are being directed for a third season by composer/arranger and instrumentalist Tom Baehr, of Putney, who sings tenor in several regional choirs and choruses. With a nautical theme this June, the Chamber Singers will reprise “Crossing the Bar,” Rani Arbo’s setting of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem.
Brattleboro Time Trade:
Exchanging services, creating connections, strengthening communities, one hour at a time.
See below for exciting Upcoming Events and learn what Time Trade is all about!
This week’s fabulous listings, brought to you from a sunny beach day in Northern Quebec:
OFFERS:
Calligraphy Lessons
Reading Instruction
Cooking Lessons
Walk Dog
Dog Walking / Puppy Obedience
