Noise In the Library?!?! Brooks Memorial Library Renovations

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

The Brooks Memorial Library is beginning renovations made possible by the recent bequest of Ronald Read. Mr. Read left BML over 1.2 million dollars in 2015. The Board of Trustees has invested the bulk of the funds in an endowment to provide support for the library for generations to come. The balance is being used to offset the staffing costs of restored hours and to make improvements to the building which will be 50 years old next year. The BML Buildings and Grounds Committee sought extensive input from the public and staff during the planning process. Among the improvements will be added spaces for meetings and quiet study a room for teens and a restroom on the ground floor.

This Week in Brattleboro History – That Time Irene Flooded Flat Street

by reginaldwam3 | History

Five years ago, this week, a freak-show hurricane cum tropical storm called Irene, dropped unprecedented amounts of rain on the state of Vermont. Brattleboro’s many waterways swelled beyond their banks, including the Whetstone Brook, which crept, uninvited, on to Flat Street, creating a brown, muddy lake, damaging buildings and closing business.

BHS Trustee Joe Rivers spoke with Boys & Girls Clubs interim director, Ricky Davidson, about the day Irene visited ruination upon Brattleboro, the damage no one saw coming, and the equally tremendous swell of community spirit and generosity that aided a remarkable recovery.

Photo by and courtesy of Peter LaMorder

Noticed Around Brattleboro – Late Summer Early Fall 2016

by cgrotke | Town News

Time for another edition of Noticed Around Brattleboro, where you are invited to note things you have noticed in your neck of the woods. Small things, perhaps. Anything, really. Here are a few to get things started.

– The new Elliot Street bridge is completed and looks good.

– There are new talking crosswalk buttons downtown at some intersections. (I’ll guess that these will be disliked by most. They kind of bark at you, in contrast to the tweeting sounds we’re used to. I pressed the button and it yelled “Wait!”)

– Western Ave paving is getting underway from Havilands to I-91.

Spaceman: Of Roadkill & Governors

by Not Signed In | Politics

Bill Lee Seeks To Be Labor’s Anti-Candidate In 2016 Vermont Governors’ Race

By Dave Van Deusen*

Montpelier, Vermont, 8/23/16- Anyone who grew up in New England or Quebec in the 1970s, any baseball fan really, knows tales of the Spaceman. Pitching for the Boston Red Sox from 1969-1978 and the Montreal Expos from 1979-1982, yarns of Bill sprinkling “marijuana dust” on his pancakes to help him cope with big city bus fumes abound. We Vermonters know him as an adoptive (and eccentric) favorite son, involving himself politically in support of single payer healthcare and endorsing Anthony Pollina’s own 2008 run for governor. Now the Spaceman is running for Governor in his own right; as the candidate of the Vermont Liberty Union Party.

Brattleboro Development Review Board Meeting Agenda

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

The Brattleboro Development Review Board will hold a meeting on Monday, September 19, 2016 at 7:00 PM in the Selectboard Meeting Room at the Municipal Center.

Rita Johnson
Planning Clerk & E911 Coordinator
Town of Brattleboro
230 Main Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
planning@brattleboro.org

I-91 Brattleboro Bridge Replacement Project Update: Week of September 5th

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

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.

To reduce congestion on I-91, both Exit 3 on ramps will be closed on Monday, September 5th from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM (I-91 will remain open). Traffic conditions on both I-91 and through the town will be monitored closely throughout the day. Should traffic congestion become an issue, the ramps may be re-opened until traffic conditions improve. This will be managed actively throughout the day until peak traffic volumes have passed.

Route 30

The speed limit on Route 30 near the work zone has been reduced to 40 mph. Project-related truck activity on Route 30 will continue. Route 30 may be reduced to a single lane intermittently, with flaggers regulating traffic within the work zone.

Thank you for your patience as the bridge flares were constructed at RT 30 this week.

Chronic Pain Workshops To Be Offered at Grace Cottage

by BMH | Health

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is offering a Chronic Pain Self-Management Program at in the Holt Conference Room with a partnership with (Support and Services at Home). This free workshop series is scheduled to start on September 21st from 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM and continue every Wednesday ending October 26th 2016.

Living a Healthier Life with Chronic Pain Workshop is a Self-Management Program (CPSMP) designed for people who have either a primary or secondary diagnosis of chronic pain (as defined as lasting for longer than 3 to 6 months or lasting longer than the normal healing time of an injury) and focuses on problem solving, appropriate usage of medications and exercise, nutrition, emotions and communicating with health care providers. The CPSMP is a workshop given over two and a half hours, once a week for six weeks.

51st Labor Day Weekend Festival Offers Chamber Music & Orchestra on the Lawn

by fomag | Music

Guilford, Vt. – As it has done for a half-century, Friends of Music at Guilford opens its annual music season with a concert in a rural barn on Saturday night of Labor Day Weekend. The Organ Barn is at Tree Frog Farm in an idyllic setting near the state line where Guilford meets Leyden, Massachusetts. The intimate Organ Barn seats about a hundred concertgoers, and on Sunday afternoon, two hundred or more people flock to the site for picnicking and an orchestra concert outside the Barn.

At 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 3, what is usually billed simply as “an organ concert in the barn” will be performed on both the resident c. 1897 tracker organ and a “visiting” harpsichord with transverse flute and vocal soloist. Featured performers are the duo Les Inégales—Christine Gevert, organ and harpsichord, and Rodrigo Tarraza, traverso—with colleague Nicholas Tamagna, countertenor. Their “Music in the Age of Enlightenment” program includes works by J. S. Bach, Telemann, Corelli, Handel, and their somewhat less-famous contemporaries Joseph Bodin de Boismortier, Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, and Johann Christoph Pepusch. The repertoire includes pieces for solo organ or harpsichord, as well as a variety of duets and trios.

Brattleboro Labor Day Closings

by Not Signed In | Town News

In observance of Labor Day, all Town offices will be closed on Monday, September 5, 2016, with the exception of emergency services.

Parking is free at all metered spaces and in the pay-and-display lots on Sunday, September 4, and Monday, September 5. All other violations will be enforced.

Brooks Memorial Library will be closed on Sunday, September 4, and Monday, September 5.

GMMT: Fire Destroys 40 Years of Artwork!

by BrattleboroTV | Media

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Chris Lenois (WKVT) talks with Maddi Shaw (Reformer) about her trip to the Route 9 residence of Mitchell Giddings co-owner Jim Giddings where a art studio fire consumed more than 150 original paintings created over the course of forty years!

Brattleboro Elliot Street Bridge Construction Project Completed

by Not Signed In | Town News

The Town of Brattleboro is pleased to announce that construction work on the Elliot Street bridge crossing the Whetstone Brook was completed on schedule on Friday, August 26, 2016, and that this bridge has fully reopened for motor vehicle, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic.

A range of State of Vermont, Town of Brattleboro, and private personnel were vital to the successful and timely completion of this project. The leadership of Vermont Secretary of Transportation Chris Cole is particularly noteworthy, as is his Agency’s innovative program that gives priority to expedited bridge deck replacements projects. Also instrumental were the efforts of Vermont Agency of Transportation Project Manager Jennifer Fitch, who spent significant time and effort managing and overseeing the planning and implementation of this project from her home office in Montpelier, VTrans resident engineer Chad Greenwood, and local VTrans District 2 staff.

Looking At A Spectacle From Behind

by cgrotke | Media

YouTube was streaming the MTV Video Music Awards, sort of.

They showed us everything except the stage. We saw backstage cameras, dressing room cameras, limo pickup area cameras, talent prep areas, the lobby, and lots of shots of the audience. But no performances.

We could hear, somewhat, what or who was on stage, but our visual focus was elsewhere. Nicki Minaj or Beyonce getting their hair done, Kanye wandering the lobby, Jaden Smith talking in the hall with Miley Cyrus. It was Kanye and Kim Kardashian sitting alone looking at their phones in a dressing room.

This went on all night. Cameras would switch from obscure location to obscure location.

Rt 30 Closure Schedule Update – Tuesday

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

Good Afternoon,

Please note the following:

· Today’s RT 30 closure will be extended to 8:00 PM. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

· RT 30 will be closed tomorrow (Wednesday) starting at 7:00 AM. This is required to finish the concrete operations over RT30.

Thank you for your patience as we work to complete the flares over RT 30.

A Word for Wilder

by cgrotke | Obituaries

Gene Wilder. Don’t know the guy at all, other than through his work, but his passing made me think again of how much I’ve been entertained by Mr. Wilder throughout the years.

For me, Willy Wonka is perhaps one of the more inspirational movies from childhood that I return to over and over in my life. A poor nothing of a boy gets a lucky break, explores a highly creative manufacturing establishment, and ends up being given the chocolate factory. Wilder’s Wonka is the only one worth watching.

A few guiding lessons that stick with me from lyrics and lines in the film:

1. If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it. Anything you want to, do it. Want to change the world? There’s nothing to it.

Express Fluency Featured in Brattleboro Reformer

by expressfluency | Other

“Brattleboro’s Express Fluency offers new approach to learning languages.”
August 18, 2016

BRATTLEBORO — Elissa McLean has heard the same sad story more times than she can count: Adults say to her, “I took (fill in the language) for years in high school/college, but I can’t speak a word.”

McLean, founder and owner of Express Fluency, a language school and teacher training center, intends to change that by offering a new kind of language class. The method she uses is based on TCI, Teaching with Comprehensible Input. (Listening and reading comprise input; speaking and writing are output.)

RT 30 Closure Schedule Update – Monday

by Not Signed In | Town Plan

Route 30 closure for today, August 29, 2016 will be extended to 8:00 p.m. this evening.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Bonnie Clark
Field Office Manager
Public Relations Officer
PCL Civil Constructors, Inc.
41 Spring Tree Road | Brattleboro, Vermont 05301

BMH Offers Free WRAP Wellness Workshop Series

by BMH | Health

Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is offering a WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plan) workshop series scheduled on September 23rd (3PM – 8PM), 24th (9AM – 6PM) and 25th (9AM – 5PM) in Brew Barry Conference Room 2. This free workshop, conducted in three sessions, provides participants with tools to deal with life’s complications and to plan for the inevitable bumps along the way.

WRAP was developed in 1997 by a group of people searching for ways to overcome their own mental health issues and move on to fulfilling their life dreams and goals. It is now used extensively by people in all kinds of circumstances, and by health care and mental health systems all over the world to address all kinds of physical, mental health and life issues.

We Buried Some More Treasure: Here Is How To Find It

by Rolf | Entertainment

Before you set out to find this treasure,

find something that you would like to find.

A trinket, a ring, a little treasure worthy of being found.

Swap it with the one we left for you, so that this treasure hunt can bring a little joy to many different people, perhaps for years.

DO NOT DIG DEEPLY.
The treasure is hidden by the thinnest layer.
I will mark it with an X.
Please hide your treasure safely, only an inch down at most, and under the X.

Here are the clues.

Savings Bank of Walpole Hosts Annie Kuster

by Not Signed In | Business

SAVINGS BANK OF WALPOLE HOSTS CONGRESSWOMAN ANNIE KUSTER AS PART OF ABA’S “TAKE YOUR LAWMAKER TO WORK” INITIATIVE

Keene, NH, – Savings Bank of Walpole was pleased to host Congresswoman Annie Kuster (NH-02) on August 23rd as part of the American Bankers Association’s (ABA) “Take your Lawmaker to Work,” program. During her visit to the Bank, Congresswoman Kuster met SBW employees and customers and also learned more about the Bank’s operations and role as a community partner.

Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire’s Wings of Hope Butterfly Release event

by Not Signed In | Family

SEVENTH ANNUAL WINGS OF HOPE BUTTERFLY RELEASE FLUTTERS ONCE AGAIN ON SEPTEMBER 10
Purchase of Butterflies Raises Money for Hospice Programs

Lebanon, New Hampshire, August 29, 2016 – On Saturday, September 10th, hundreds of majestic Monarch butterflies will take flight simultaneously during the Wings of Hope butterfly release event to be held in Colburn Park in Lebanon from 1-3 p.m. The annual fundraiser, now in its seventh year, is presented by Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire (VNH) and is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the non-profit organization. Purchase of a butterfly for release is $20 and proceeds help support hospice care programs, patients and their families.