News & Information

Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast, March 15, 2013, Gibson-Aiken Center – Brattleboro VT

Presenter: Tad Montgomery  –  ecological engineer, principal of  and member of the Home Energy Challenge and PACE sub-committees of the Brattleboro Town Energy Committee.

Tad began by asking the audience of about 25 people whether they had done energy efficiency retrofits on their houses since 2007.  About ? had. He noted that statewide it is 5.6%, or about 1% per year.  At that rate it will take 100 years to get to the 20%-30% goal the state has set for itself by 2020.  

Tis over.

The Brattleboro Citizen Police Communications Committee (CPCC) will meet on Monday, March 25, 2013 at 5:30pm at the Brooks Memorial Library in the community room.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

Below you’ll find a handy guide to the Town’s half of the Town Meeting Articles (the Schools half I couldn’t find; if you have it add it in the comments).

Brattleboro’s Representative Town Meeting is Saturday at the high school on Fairground Road. BCTV will be there covering the events of the day, and we’ll be streaming their signal here so you can observe and make comments from the proverbial peanut gallery.

The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special organizational meeting on Monday, March 25, 2013 at 6:15pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.

Brattleboro has been named one of the 10 best towns in the US by Fodor’s magazine! Despite all our problems and all the complaining it’s still a pretty good place to live. Also included in the top 10 was Provincetown, Massachusetts- one of my favorite places to spend time.

www.fodors.com

Amidst discussions of Brooks House tax stabilization and other business came the final thoughts and words of three Selectboard members sharing a final regular Tuesday meeting together. The two longest serving agreed that Brattleboro could use a mayor.

The Brooks House got their savings, Chris Chapman started a discussion about future plans for the Brattleboro’s earliest existing train station, the utility budget was approved for FY14, and many liquor licenses were approved en masse.

The River Garden as Part of our Commons

[Click ‘Read More’ below if you wish to read the many statements made on behalf of the River Garden at the meeting described below. — JW]

If you’re interested in saving the River Garden for public use, or even if you aren’t, please read these statements excerpted from the record of the Brattleboro Selectboard meeting of December 5, 2006 – the topic at hand was whether or not the Town should ask the State Legislature for “forgiveness” of a restriction attached to the first State grant of $150,000 used to purchase the land where the River Garden now stands, which stated that the Town or BaBB would have to pay the Legislature back those funds were the River Garden ever to be sold to a private individual or a for-profit entity. The ‘suitor’ or prospective purchaser of the property at that time was Tony Elliott’s Windham Development Group, LLC, the recent renovator of the Windham Hotel in Bellows Falls.

The Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee will meet on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at 4:15pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

Jan Anderson
Executive Secretary
Brattleboro Town Manager’s Office
(802) 251-8100

Brattleboro’s historic train station is up for discussion again at the next Brattleboro Selectboard meeting. Fulcrum Arts has abandoned their plans for the space, taking the board back to planning how best to use the building.

The Brooks House team is expected to ask the board for a tax stabilization agreement, the board will consider the nearly $5 million FY14 Utilities budget which includes an over-$635,000 deficit There will also be multiple grants from Homeland Security for more training and equipment, annual liquor and tobacco licenses will be renewed and more.

You can watch it all on TV or attend in person at the Municipal Center on Main Street. If you do go, you can bring up other issues not on the agenda during Public Participation and speak to anything on the agenda.

Jon Evans, Akley Rd. resident, was the 500th person to sign up for Curbside Compost!  Jon was awarded a year’s supply of GLAD compostable bags! 

Jon writes, 

“Thank you so much for the (year’s supply of GLAD compostable bags)! I am truly looking forward to participating in this composting project!  I will be looking forward to the email (saying) that I can come and get the container …  I will be sharing this project with everyone I know in town!”