Yesterday in an historic move in Vermont, Governor Peter Shumlin signed the first in the nation no strings attached law requiring mandatory labeling of genetically engineered (GMO) food in the nation. This is incredible news!
But already this morning, the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), and GMA member Monsanto, announced that they plan to sue the state of Vermont to stop the bill from being implemented!
Eh Why am I not surprised?
This week the Vermont House of Representatives voted unanimously to concur with the Senate proposal of Amendment of H.225 – the Taser bill.
Barring any technical problems that might pop up during vetting of the bill by his staff (which is a common disclaimer with any bill that hits his desk), it was reported by his staff that Governor Peter Shumlin intends to sign the bill into law.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center. It is anticipated that the Board will enter into executive session at 5:45pm to discuss personnel and contractual matters, and reconvene the special meeting at 6:15pm.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
The Brattleboro Arts Committee will meet on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 at 4:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
The Brattleboro Police-Fire Facilities Building Committee will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 at 4:00pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
The Brattleboro Tree Advisory Committee will meet on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 at 7:00pm at 9 Southern Avenue (257-1164). NOTE: new location for this meeting only.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
The fourth installment of the 2013 Real Estate and Personal Property Taxes will be due on May 15, 2014 by 5:00 PM. Payments made after May 15, 2014 will have an additional 1% interest, as well as an 8% penalty added to the unpaid balance.
The utility billing is also due on May 15, 2014 by 5:00 PM. Payments made after May 15, 2014 will have an additional 1% interest, as well as an 8% penalty added to the unpaid balance.
Philadelphia, May 9, 1864.
Dearest wife,-
You see I am here yet. I wrote to you on leaving Brattleboro April 25th and again on reaching this place, but have heard nothing in answer to them. I have received one letter from you directed to Brattleboro and forwarded to me here. I thought that I would write to you again from here now, for if you have not received my letters and have heard that our boys at Brattleboro have been ordered to the front, they stopped in this place the night of May 3rd. I did not know of it until they had gone on. All my luggage is in Brattleboro, except that clothes I took with me here.
UPPER DUMMERSTON ROAD UPDATE: Upper Dummerston Road will remain open for the remainder of this week and next week. We do not anticipate any further closures of Upper Dummerston Road until later this spring or summer.
Cindy Cook
Principal, Adamant Accord, Inc.
Past Vice President, Association for Conflict Resolution
A retrospective of Barbara Frodenberg’s works will show at the Brooks Memorial Library through the month of May. The collection represents an intimate view into her creative world. Many of the works are prints from an intensely creative period when she lived in Shelton, Washington.
Also included are watercolors and sequence paintings from her time here in Brattleboro. There will be a public reception in the Library’s meeting room beginning at 2 PM on Friday, May 9. Location Reception Meeting Room, 2nd Floor. Exhibit Main Floor. Contact Christine de Vallet, Public Art Coordinator.
Donald Saaf creates collages by carefully integrating torn wallpaper, images from magazines and catalogs, and photocopies of everyday objects with his bold gouache paintings. He has illustrated such popular books as Pushkin Minds the Bundle, Flemenpeo, and Animal Music.
Trained in painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Donald Saaf exhibits his work at the nearby Clark Gallery. He lives with his family in Saxtons River, Vermont.
I’ve heard about a mass mailing pertaining to irradiated water that could potentially affect residents of Brattleboro. I live outside of town, so I haven’t actually seen the mailing, but wondered who it was sent by. Also, what’s the deal with signing up for some type of pill just in case? I’m not trying to stir people up, I just wonder if anyone has more information about this mailing.
I have a few concerns about Pay As You Thow implementation for our town. Although I completely agree that we all need to be responsible for our own waste, I hope we can be very careful about how we choose to create this program. Some of the selectboard members have made comments that indicate an interest in possibly removing this line item from our budget completely and passing those costs directly to our townspeople. In other posts on this site there have been comments about how this is a cost shift and that is true in a number of different ways that we really need to pay attention to.
Currently, our municipal taxes pay for our trash pickup. It is a line item in our municipal budget, and all of the grand list is assessed the tax. That means that businesses contribute to this cost even though our businesses are responsible for providing their own waste disposal. If we go to a PAYT program that is not part of our municipal budget, we will see a reduction of our municipal tax but each homeowner will most likely be paying more since there is no subsidy from our businesses on the grand list. Businesses will have a tax reduction with no corresponding increase in costs.
BROAD BROOK GRANGE will present its 18th annual Mother’s Day Brunch on Sunday, May 11, from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Grange hall in Guilford Center. The proceeds from the event will allow for continued renovations of the historic building.
The all-you-can-eat brunch features eggs and omelets, any style, made to order. Also on the menu are pancakes, French toast, sausage, bacon and home fries, with Guilford maple syrup. Other treats include home-baked coffee cakes and other baked goods, fresh fruit salad, and bread for toasting. A selection of juices will be available, along with coffee, teas and milk.
Friends of the West River Trail has re-routed the section of the trail between the southern trailhead near the Marina Restaurant and the I-91 bridge. The new section of trail passes under the interstate on the hill just below the bridge abutment, offering a great vantage point to watch the bridge construction.
From the southern trailhead, the trail extends for 3.5 miles north to Rice Farm Road in Dummerston and is open to the public for walking, bicycling, fishing, and nature study. Wildflowers are abundant, and now is a great time to enjoy the trail!
To add to our continuing look at town government and annual town meetings, let’s head back to see the news of May 8, 1903. From the Phoenix:
Village Meeting as Exciting as a Quaker Meeting – Tax of 40 Cents Voted With About 30 Present
Thirty men transacted the business of the annual village meeting Tuesday, with the exception of the election of the officers, making provision in three minutes for the expenditure of about $20,000, which is at the rate of over $6,500 a minute. Stated another way, each man voted away over $650, provided all voted.
This photo should really put a stop to nay sayers, scoffers, and the like. A hand scrawled note on the picture states, “Three Air Ships Over Elliot Street, Brattleboro, Vermont, April 5, 1872”
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 in the Fall of 2015.
There will be no night work the week of May 11.
Route 30
The speed limit on Route 30 near the work zone has been reduced to 40 mph. This reduction will remain in effect through the Spring of 2016.
Former New England Center for Circus Arts student Samantha Pitard was one of the eight circus acrobats that fell at a Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey circus show in Providence.
She’s the only performer released from the hospital so far.
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Elsie Smith, NECCA co-founder and Artistic Director, said doing aerial arts is like driving a car. ”You learn slowly, and know that there is danger in what you are doing. There are bumps and bruises and fender benders along the way, and every once in a while there is an accident like a pile up on the interstate that gets a lot of attention.”
UPPER DUMMERSTON CLOSURE UPDATE: Demolition work on the I-91 Bridge over Upper Dummerston Road will be halted later today, May 7. Upper Dummerston will remain open from later today through to the morning of Monday, May 12.
Our work and the Upper Dummerston Road closure will resume at 7:00 AM Monday, May 12th and will be completed Wednesday, May 14th. Upper Dummerston road will only be closed during the day from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM and will be reopened at night. We do not anticipate any night work for the closure.
