News and information sections, from near to far
The Brattleboro Pay-As-You-Throw Advisory Committee/Working Group will meet on Thursday, January 7, 2016 at 2:30pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
The Town of Brattleboro would like to remind everyone that the snow emergency ban is in effect.
Snow and ice will be removed from the streets in the downtown area this evening.
Parked vehicles in the downtown district must be removed by 10:30pm or they will be towed at the owner’s expense.
Welcome to a new year of Brattleboro Selectboard meetings.
On Tuesday, to kick off 2016, the Brattleboro Selectboard will contemplate whether moving the police station to Black Mountain Road, away from the center of town and out of the municipal center, is a good idea or not. If you have views, you may want to attend and share them.
The board will also take up remaining issues with the FY17 budget proposal and discuss potential use of the fund balance (our “reserve”). There will be ordinary business related to articles on the Representative Town Meeting agenda. Cemetery and Energy Committees will give annual reports, new committee appointments will be made, and more.
Watch on BCTV and read about it here after the meeting.
The Brattleboro Energy Committee will meet on Monday, January 4, 2016 at 5:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.
The Brattleboro Regional Economic Hub Study Group will meet on Thursday, January 7, 2016 at 6:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.
The Brattleboro ADA Advisory Committee will meet on Friday, January 8, 2016 at 10:00am at the Marlboro College Graduate Center in the VCIL conference room.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
I tried to order a final gift online on Monday and my BS&L card was rejected by the web site. The site told me to re-enter my info, so I did, and it gave me the same error.
I had been doing this quite easily for the last few weeks, with items of similar prices, so I knew it wasn’t my card. I assumed the web site had errors.
So, while I liked the price and location of the original store in New York, I went to a different site in a different location and it worked. I ordered my item without a problem from a different place in Tennessee.
Unfortunately, after ordering, that store owner called me to tell me he was out of stock and didn’t expect a replacement until September.
BRATTLEBORO – Governor Peter Shumlin, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, U.S. Congressman Peter Welch, and local officials joined Norm Schneeberger, President and CEO of G.S. Precision, to break ground on a $17 million expansion that will bring 100 new jobs to Brattleboro in the next few years. The event capped nearly eight months of work by G.S. Precision, Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA), and the Town of Brattleboro to ensure that the company expanded its business in Brattleboro and not elsewhere.
“This project has been a team effort to combine federal, state, and local resources to retain and create great jobs in Brattleboro,” said Governor Shumlin. “This is the kind of public-private partnership that will help ensure Windham County’s economic future.”
The Brattleboro Citizen Police Communications Committee (CPCC) will meet on Monday, December 28, 2015 at 5:30pm at the Brooks Memorial Library in the community room.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
Brattleboro Time Trade: Exchanging services, creating connections, strengthening communities, one hour at a time. See below for more exciting Upcoming Events and learn what Time Trade can do for you!
How Time Trade Works: You do something for someone and earn time credits for your “bank,” which you can then put towards someone
else doing something for you! It’s that simple – and amazing!
This week’s fabulous listings, brought to you from Solstice Eve:
OFFERS (i.e. things people could do for you):
Home Arts and Crafts Projects
Learn to Stack a Round Woodpile
Pet Care in Your Home
Paper Leaf Collection Bags
Brattleboro Food Coop Member Hours
Time Credits for New Member Recruitment! Last week!
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Monday to discuss budget matters and police and fire facility plans.
I don’t plan to cover this. Consider it my gift to the board – a week free of close scrutiny. (Anyone reading this is qualified and welcome to write this meeting up, of course. A gift for me?)
In observance of the Christmas holiday:
All Brattleboro Town offices will close at 12:00 noon on Thursday, December 24, and will be closed on Friday, December 25, 2015, with the exception of emergency services.
Brooks Memorial Library will open at 9:00am and close at 12:00 noon on Thursday, December 24, and will be closed on Friday, December 25. It will resume normal hours on Saturday, December 26.
Parking is free at all metered spaces and in the pay-and-display lots from 12:00 noon on December 24 through December 25. Parking enforcement will resume normal hours on Saturday, December 26. All other violations will be enforced.
Best wishes to all for safe and merry holidays!
I-91
Please be prepared for heavy traffic resulting in minor slowing of traffic over Christmas and New Year’s weeks, and especially on December 24th, 28th and 31st.
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.
The Brattleboro Selectboard was impressed by a presentation from Jennifer Fitch of Vtrans regarding the new repairs for Elliot Street bridge, which she said would be done quickly, at high quality, and come at a bargain price for the town. The only thing that could stand in the way of a summer bridge repair now are the bats.
In addition, the board authorized the town manager to negotiate for every other week garbage pickup, Police Fire Facility questions remain, the Green Street retaining wall will be repaired, a new design review committee was formed, and the downtown organization made its annual visit to present their workplan and budget for a delay in approval.
The West Brattleboro Association (WBA) announced its Community Leader of the Year recipient during its annual Holiday Party on Monday, December 14, at The New England House. The winner of this 5th annual award is the Bonnyvale Environmental Education Center (BEEC).
Programs and activities BEEC has sponsored in its 24 years of existence include vacation camps attended by more than 100 children each year; various school and classroom programs throughout Windham County including preschool, elementary, and middle schools, both public and private. In addition, BEEC holds the Forest of Mystery at Halloween; organizes the Salamander Crossing Brigades for the first warm rainy nights of the year; and runs other nature-oriented activities (many free) including stargazing for adults and families, tracking wildlife in the snow, watching beavers in their habitats, and Sunday morning walks called AM Ambles. It also leads the Vernal Pool Monitoring Project and collaborates on the Pollinator Awareness Initiative.
Was just downtown as a bunch of police, sherrif and state troopers arrived with lights flashing at the corner of Elliot and Main. People were being escorted from the bank.
It’s time for another Selectboard meeting, and time for them to make some decisions about the Waste Management District budget, changing from weekly trash pickup, and single stream recyling.
They’ll also ponder the Police Fire Facilities project, award a bid for Elliot Street bridge repairs, approve some grants, and hear the annual report from the Downtown Brattleboro Alliance (formerly the Downtown Alliance, formerly Building a Better Brattleboro).
You can bring up other issues not on the agenda during public participation. Attend in person, watch on BCTV, or read about it hear after the meeting.
The Brattleboro Traffic Safety Committee will meet on Thursday, December 17, 2015 at 8:00am in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.
Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100
LIBRARY OPEN HOUSE FOR JERRY CARBONE
The public is invited to an Open House at the Brooks Memorial Library on Friday, Dec. 18 from 4 to 7PM to celebrate Jerry Carbone’s work for and at the Library.
Jerry Carbone has been a leader in Vermont public libraries for 37 years. Under Jerry’s leadership, Brooks Memorial Library broadened and deepened its mission to become a community hub, a resource for lifelong learning, and a center for multimedia literacy for the 21st century.
In his 23 years as Director, Carbone worked tirelessly to sustain public and private library funding and inspired a major bequest that will help ensure the library’s continued role as a model for public library service in Vermont. He started working at Brooks on November 4, 1978 as a Reference Librarian and became the Director in 1993.
“Our 200th meeting in a row,” said John Allen, commenting on the more-than-weekly nature of recent board meetings.
Town Manager Elwell made note of an excellent audit result, in which the state’s Department of Public Safety looked at about $236,000 worth of grants given to the town and found Brattleboro to being looking good. All praise to Grants Manager Kim Ellison.
In response to public inquiry, Elwell said the engineer looking into downtown traffic flow for cars and pedestrians should have results for the town soon, and that favorable bids had been received for the Green Street retaining wall project, to be discussed at next week’s (201st) meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard.
Please take notice that Brattleboro Museum & Art Center whose address is 10 Vernon Street, Brattleboro, VT is applying to the Vermont Brownfields Reuse and Environmental Liability Limitation Program (10 V.S.A. §6641 et seq.) in connection with the redevelopment of property known as 11 Arch Street in the Town of Brattleboro.
A copy of the application, which contains a preliminary environmental assessment and a description of the proposed redevelopment project is available for public review at the Brattleboro Town Clerk’s Office and at the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation offices in Montpelier.
The investigation into the arson fire that caused extensive damage to four apartments at 16 – 38 Valgar St. continues to be a very active, joint effort by the Brattleboro Police and Fire Departments. Both agencies, along with assistance from the VT State Police, have been working persistently since the morning of the fire, conducting dozens of interviews to gather information about the incident. At this time the investigation is continuing and the agencies are again asking for anyone who may have seen anything unusual before the time of the fire or may have any information about the fire to call the Brattleboro Police Department at 802-257-7946 or the Brattleboro Police Tips Hotline at 802-251-8188.
