Hello Food Lovers,
This week’s menu includes two rich and luscious Indian dishes, dal to go with, and a tart, sweet, and savory grounding Mexican beef stew for the start of spring:
Kerala-Style Fennel Coconut Chicken Curry: A dish I learned at the traditional fishing village of Marari Beach in Kerala, India. Free-range chicken with a dozen spices, lots of ginger and garlic, and a coconut oil-rich gravy.
Dear Paul Dame and H Brooke Paige, Lord knows I drive a “pray as you go daily” 1999 Chevy which is convenient when it needs repairs because the Vermont junk yards are full of parts. I believe in Recylcing, even when it comes to cars. BUT IT GETS 13 M.P.G.
April 6 Chef Salad
Tomato Basil Salad
Cucumber Ranch
Pudding
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a regular meeting on Tuesday, April 7, 2026, at 6:15pm in the Selectboard Meeting Room at the Brattleboro Municipal Center (230 Main Street, Room 212) and over Zoom. Prior to the regular meeting at 5:15pm, the Board will convene and is expected to move directly into executive session to discuss contracts and real estate. The attached agenda contains information on how to access the meeting remotely, including the required “passcode.” Closed captioning will be available for deaf and hard-of-hearing community members. The backup materials for this meeting will be available on the town website by the end of the day.
Annual Town Meeting is scheduled for Saturday, April 11, 2026, at the Brattleboro Union High School gymnasium at 8:30am.
Prior to this meeting, the Brattleboro Selectboard will hold an informational forum on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at the Brattleboro Area Middle School (109 Sunny Acres Road) in the Multipurpose Room at 7:00pm. Below are more details about the informational forum.
Beginning Monday, crews will be accessing the shoulders along U.S. Route 5 from the Interstate 91 overpass in Brattleboro north toward the intersection with Putney Landing Road in Putney. There is potential for single lane closures with flaggers to be in place from Wednesday to Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
March broke us from a cold winter to a somewhat warmer month with little snow and near normal moisture. At my location measured 3.25″ of precip compared to the NOAA normal of 3.62 inches. For the year to date the total is 7.49″ compared to the average of 10.12″. This area is continuing with below normal rain/snowfall.
Snow for the month was only 6.7″ compared to my average of 10.4″. The season total stands at 54.9″ with my moving average continuing to drop, now at 62.3″. Back during the first decade of the 2000’s my seasonal average was in the area of 68″ and has mostly been dropping since. In 2001 the March snow total was 46″.
PUTNEY, VT — On Saturday, May 2, Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present a special evening of contemporary folk in an intimate “in-the-round” format, featuring four acclaimed singer/songwriters: Alice Howe, Freebo, Sam Robbins, and Halley Neal. The concert begins at 7:30 pm, with doors opening at 6:45 pm, at Next Stage Arts, 15 Kimball Hill. Tickets are $24 in advance, $28 at the door, and $10 for a livestream option, available at nextstagearts.org.
This unique shared-concert experience brings the artists together onstage throughout the evening, blending solo performances with spontaneous collaborations, storytelling, and musical interplay. The “in-the-round” format invites audiences into a more personal and conversational style of performance, where songs and stories unfold in a dynamic, communal setting.
At its March 26, 2026 meeting, the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board (VHCB) committed $4,544,575 in state, federal, and philanthropic funding to strengthen both — approving investments to conserve 2,420 acres of Vermont’s most ecologically significant lands and support 27 new affordable homes across the state.
These investments address Vermont’s most urgent needs: expanding affordable homeownership in high-demand areas, innovative financing strategies to preserve housing for extremely low-income households in the face of federal rental assistance reductions, protecting critical wetland systems and water quality corridors linked to Lake Champlain, expanding town forest holdings, and conserving high-priority interior forest blocks connecting major conservation areas across the state.
Noticing that the greatest amount of development in Brattleboro in the last year were miniature properties, the Brattleboro Selectboard has decide to shift the tax burden from the voters of town to the inhabitants of the miniature properties. Voting along party lines, the measure was approved at their most recent meeting.
“We hereby resolve that property taxes will henceforth be paid only on miniature properties within the Town limits,” read the Clerk before the unanimous vote.
You never know where or when you might have a life-altering experience. Accidents and circumstances beyond your control may push you in certain directions. Then there are the more subtle events that seem to have an impact that lingers and force you to reassess your life.
I was on a tour of an animal refuge center in Costa Rica. There were 12 people in our guide-lead group. The age range of the group was from toddlers to my wife and me. We were clearly the oldest people in the group, but that fact did not seem significant.
The Town of Brattleboro is looking for citizens to serve on the following committees and boards:
ADA Committee
Conservation Commission
Design Review Board (Alternate)
Development Review Board (Alternate)
Energy Committee – 1 year term
The Town of Brattleboro today marked the retirement of Police Chief Norma Hardy, whose remarkable four and a half years of leadership transformed the Brattleboro Police Department and leaves an enduring legacy of community-centered policing. Chief Hardy officially stepped down on March 30, 2026, after more than 30 years in law enforcement, a career defined by compassion, courage, and an unwavering commitment to the people she served. Hardy’s retirement coincided with the swearing in of Brattleboro’s next Police Chief, Jeremy Evans, whose career with the department began in 1998, and the new Assistant Police Chief, Adam Petlock.
Under Chief Hardy’s leadership, the Brattleboro Police Department pursued an ambitious and forward-thinking agenda to make the community safer and more connected. Her hallmark initiative, the Brattleboro Resource Assistance Team (BRAT), placed additional unarmed officers on regular foot patrol throughout downtown, based at the newly built police substation at the Transportation Center. In its first year alone, the unit responded to more than 530 incidents, and business owners credited the increased visibility with revitalizing the downtown experience for residents and visitors.
Residents of District 9 will continue their discussion of Town matters in advance of Town Meeting (which is Saturday 11 April) in another of our periodic get-togethers. The District 9 forum will occur at 6:30 pm on Tuesday 31 March in the Community Room of the Brooks Memorial Library (3rd floor). For more information, contact Robert Oeser (robt.oeser@gmail.com) or David Levenbach (fideladelphia@gmail.com; 413.559.1533).
March 30 Cheesburger
French Fries
Peas & Carrots
Chopped Salad
Tropical Fruit
Hello Food Lovers,
This week’s menu includes two new dishes:
Mexican Chicken in Tomatillo Sauce: Free-range chicken cooked in a tangy, just slightly spicy tomatillo sauce that can be enjoyed dairy free or with a finish of sour cream.
Creamy Mushroom and Chickpea Curry: Roasting mushrooms brings out the most of their savory nature, and cashews make this a creamy curry. Vegan or vegetarian options.
This week, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Jacob P. Zorn v. Shela M. Linton that the officer who injured me during a peaceful protest is shielded from accountability under qualified immunity.
This ruling is not just about one officer who harmed me—violating my Fourth Amendment rights through the use of excessive force while I was exercising my First Amendment right to peacefully protest. It is about a system that perpetuates harm, and then protects itself.
What the Supreme Court’s decision affirms is that qualified immunity continues to function as a shield for misconduct. It sends a message that even when harm is clear, even when there is evidence, even when people within the system recognize something went wrong, accountability can still be denied.
This is not an isolated incident. This is systemic.
Travelers to Brattleboro should be advised that on Saturday, March 28, 2026, from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., an organization plans to conduct a march in the downtown area.
The march will begin at the Preston Lot and continue north along Main Street before looping around and concluding at the Preston Lot. Event organizers are anticipating approximately 3,000 participants.
The Brattleboro Tree Advisory Committee will meet on Thursday, April 2, 2026 at 4:15pm in the Hanna Cosman Meeting Room at the Municipal Center (230 Main Street).
NO KINGS? Then STOP MAKING KINGS! It’s our tax laws that need to be changed!
You pay taxes to the IRS and then the US Congress votes to give your hard earned tax dollars to their choice of corporations as “subsidies”. Your money is going to the choice of corporations selected by the US Congress, not to all of them, just to some of them. About 400 corporations receive the most of your tax dollars, millions or billions each. Not all corporations receive SUBSIDIES. The corporations selected by a vote of the U.S. Congress to receive subsidies are making a fortune by using your hard earned tax dollars to create products they sell internationally, but they keep all the profits for themselves and don’t give you a share. STOP MAKING KINGS!
