Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda and Notes – July 15, 2014

by cgrotke | Town News

We’ll get an update on the (second) Town Manager search at Tuesday’s meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard. The board will also approve a license for a new brewery, rename a road, award various bids including the purchase of a “one ton class dual drum articulating vibratory roller,” and more.

You can bring up other issues not on the agenda during public participation, or just weigh in on what’s already being discussed if you attend in person at the Municipal Center. You can also watch on BCTV, and read full coverage here the day after.

150 Years Ago (1864 7/13)

by BusyMom | History

On Picket Line North of Washington, July 13th, 1864.

I have but just sent off the last. I will just continue. When we reached the wharf the word was that the rebels were fighting with our troops on 7th Street, but you see I did not believe it, as we were marching very deliberately through the city, though every woman and child we met had great stories to tell. We marched through on 7th street, got well out of the city, crossed over to another road that leads to 14th St. was marched up near Fort Stephens and turned off into the woods and lay there all day. There was an occasional gun from the fort and some picket firing.

Uri Avnery

by tomaidh | Other

Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement.  A member of the Irgun as a teenager, Avnery sat in the Knesset from 1965–74 and 1979–81. He was also the owner of HaOlam HaZeh, an Israeli news magazine, from 1950 until it closed in 1993.

He is famous for crossing the lines during the Siege of Beirut to meet Yassir Arafat on 3 July 1982, the first time the Palestinian leader ever met with an Israeli. Avnery is the author of several books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including 1948: A Soldier’s Tale, the Bloody Road to Jerusalem (2008); Israel’s Vicious Circle (2008); and My Friend, the Enemy (1986).  (Wikipedia)

Alert Local Foodies – Grafton Food Festival – July 12-13

by Nan Stefanik | Food

Consider meandering up the West River Valley and into Grafton today for the 2nd Annual Grafton Food Festival.

All kinds of happenings under their party tents starting with a Jr Iron Chef competition at 10:30 followed by cooking demonstrations all day long.  More than 20 vendors will be sampling and selling their wares including several local food producers.  There will be a petting zoo and ‘interactive hula-hooping/hoop dance demonstration’ to entertain the young ones.  Today’s festivities run from 10am – 6pm.

Tomorrow’s schedule involves a cooking demonstration by Celebrity Chef Mary Ann Esposito and a farmers’ market on the inn grounds.

150 Years Ago (1864 7/12)

by BusyMom | History

On Board the Transport Daniel Webster

July 12, 1864.

Dear Wife,

Here we are nearly up to Washington. Last night the 3rd division went to Baltimore. I understand the 1st went there, but of that I am not certain, but I saw the 2d and 3d Vermont go aboard a transport, and the 5th and 6th is on this boat. In about 15 minutes after I had sent my last letter, I received a letter from you, written the 3rd and 4th. I read the letter and then went to cooking up my beef. I had just finished when I dropped a stitch in my back, which just straightened me out. I could not get into camp, could not turn over, nor get up alone, but made the best of it. At one o’clock the major in command of the Pickets came and told us to pack up the whole corps was moving. Wasn’t that good news for me? Had to be helped up and no surgeon or ambulance or anything else, but my feet and legs they were in good order.

Twilight on the Tavern Lawn Presents Beaucoup Blue on Sunday, July 13

by Not Signed In | Music

Twilight Music continues its 12th annual Twilight On The Tavern Lawn series of folk, world beat, rock, jazz, zydeco, Celtic, swing, blues and bluegrass summer concerts on Sunday, July 13 with Philadelphia-based, Americana and acoustic blues duo Beaucoup Blue. The seven concert series continues every other Sunday through August 24. All concerts begin at 6:00 pm in downtown Putney on the Putney Tavern lawn (bring a lawn chair or blanket) or at Next Stage at 15 Kimball Hill in case of rain. The series is sponsored by the Town of Putney, Soundview Paper Company, Next Stage Arts Project, The Stockwell Brothers and many other Putney businesses and organizations. The concerts are free to the public (donations are accepted) and food will be available.

Weekend Concert Series: Beyoncé

by cgrotke | Entertainment

The Brits know how to hold an outdoor music festival. Glastonbury is a big, multi-day music fest, with big names sharing the stage with smaller, more indie acts. 170,000 people attended this concert on a muddy farm in Somerset.

This week we turn the clock back just a bit to 2011 to attend the festival’s closing main stage act, a performance by Beyoncé .

Why Bey? That’s a fair question. I’m not particulary a fan, nor do I know much about her. I figure that a front row seat at this show might be a way to find out a bit about pop culture in the second decade of this century. What’s popular? Have things changed much?

Brattleboro OB/GYN Welcomes New Midwife

by BMH | Health

is pleased to welcome new nurse-midwife Meredith Merritt, CNM, to the practice.

Merritt received her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the University of Vermont in Burlington and her Master of Science degree in Nursing from Frontier Nursing University in Hyden, Kentucky. She resides in Brattleboro with her husband Peter, their five-month-old daughter Zora, and their dog Gary who came to them through rescue two years ago. Merritt’s hobbies include hiking, running, yoga, traveling, and time spent with her family outside.

Brattleboro Tax Schedule 2014

by Not Signed In | Town News

Notice to Taxpayers

The taxpayers of the Town of Brattleboro are hereby notified and warned that Real Estate and Personal Property Taxes assessed upon the Grand List of 2014 are now due and payable to the Town Treasurer at the Treasurer’s Office in the Brattleboro Municipal Center, 230 Main Street, Suite 111, Brattleboro, Vermont, in four equal installments as follows:

1st Installment due August 15, 2014
2nd Installment due November 17, 2014
3rd Installment due February 17, 2015
4th Installment due May 15, 2015

You are further notified that Real Estate and Personal Property tax will be charged interest at the rate of 1% per month on any overdue payment of tax installment, together with any other charged provided by law.

Bush Found Guilty Of War Crimes

by tomaidh | Politics

In what is the first ever conviction of its kind anywhere in the world, the former US President and seven key members of his administration were today (Friday) found guilty of war crimes.

Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their legal advisers Alberto Gonzales, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee and John Yoo were tried in absentia in Malaysia.

Primary Election 2014

by Vidda | Politics

The primary election is upon us. According to the Vermont Secretary of State website “Your town clerk will receive ballots for the Primary election by Friday July 11, 2014 and early voting may begin. You can vote at the town clerk’s office during normal business hours or request that an absentee ballot be sent to you. If voting absentee, ballots must be returned to the clerk before the close of the polls on election day August 26th.”

With Early Voting in the town clerk’s office or on Primary Election Day you must select a voting ballot envelope from one of three political parties: Progressive, Democrat, or Republican. In the 2012 election we had 76, 263 voters who Voted Early, not on Election Day itself.

Make a Remembrance Flag

by Not Signed In | Family

Community members are invited to come to Brattleboro Area Hospice, 191 Canal St. in Brattleboro on Thursday July 24th from 4-6 p.m. to make a remembrance flag in honor of a loved one who has died. All materials will be provided. Everyone is welcome. These flags are fun and easy to make–no special artistic talent needed! All flags will hang at the Hospice Memorial Garden on Guilford Street during the coming year.

Judy Van Wageningen and Connie Baxter will be your hosts. Refreshments will be on hand to fuel your creativity. Drop-ins are welcomed, but we would appreciate an RSVP call to Joyce at 257-0775 x105 so we can be sure to have enough materials. There is no charge for this event.

Robots In Our (Not So Distant) Future

by cgrotke | Sci-Tech

As Brattleboro’s Future’s Committee begins to form, it might be good to look at a few things predicted for the near future. One of them is robots.

The current path with robotics is to replace a majority of human workers wherever and whenever possible with robots. Very soon, they will be cheaper and better skilled than humans in a wide variety of tasks, from farming to surgery. Foxconn, maker of iPhones and such, has announced already plans to buy 10,000 robots to assist in production at a cost of about $25,000 each.

Sanders Statement on Meeting with VA Nominee McDonald

by Not Signed In | Politics

WASHINGTON, July 9 – Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after meeting on Tuesday with Robert McDonald, President Barack Obama’s nominee to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs:

“I enjoyed the opportunity to meet with Mr. McDonald and was impressed by what he brings to the table. I believe that his years of military service will make him a very strong advocate for veterans, and that his corporate leadership gives him the experience to bring about the management changes – in terms of accountability and transparency – that the VA needs.

Free Films: Screwball Comedies at Brooks Memorial Library

by Brooks Memorial Library | Entertainment

Beginning Wednesday, July 9th and continuing through November 12th, the Brattleboro Film Festival and Brooks Memorial Library will present free afternoon screenings of nine Hollywood classic screwball comedies from Tinseltown’s Golden Era.

A film by renowned Director Preston Sturges whose comedies mix the sensibilities of “a lowbrow aristocrat” with a that of a “melancholy wiseguy” will kick-off the five month-long series on July 9th at 2 p.m. in the library’s Meeting Room on the 2nd Floor. Brattleboro Film Festival Advisory Board member Tim Metcalfe and journalist Tom Bedell will host post-screening discussions in the library’s Meeting Room covering a wide range of topics related to the screwball comedy era, filmmaking and Hollywood trivia in general.