Town News

On Thursday, March 26^th, the West Brattleboro Association (WBA) is hosting a discussion with the Brattleboro Police Department about recent property break-ins. It will be held at 7:00 PM, in the Hayes Court Community Room on Garfield Drive.

All residents are invited to pose questions to the police and get pointers on how best to avoid future break-ins. This will also be an opportunity for neighbors to suggest ideas to other neighbors and/or to ask questions of or get clarifications from the Police Department. It is important to understand that the police in attendance will not be able to report on any ongoing investigations other than in very general terms.

In preparation for Brattleboro’s Representative Town Meeting, here is the officially warned agenda for said meeting. The amounts in Article 23 has been changing, and the text of the currently expected motion is also included below.

Each year the schedule alternates, and this year the schools will have the first items up for discussion and vote.

You can watch on BCTV. As per the poll results, you can also tune in here for a live blog of the day’s events. The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. We’ll get going here shortly thereafter, once the opening ceremonies and reminder of rules is out of the way.

The Brattleboro Citizen Police Communications Committee (CPCC) will meet on Monday, March 23, 2015 at 5:30pm at Brooks Memorial Library in the community room

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

The Brattleboro Tree Advisory Committee will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, March 24, 2015 at 7:00pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.

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

The Brattleboro Traffic Safety Committee meeting previously scheduled on March 24 has been CANCELLED.

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

The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Monday, March 23, 2015 at 5:15pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.

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

How best to repair the Green Street retaining wall was a big topic for the Brattleboro Selectboard at their regular Tuesday meeting. Some intriguing options led to strong opinions before consensus was reached.

The board also did some planning to learn about planning, resulting in scheduling a series of meetings to highlight the changes coming to Brattleboro’s land use regulations. Some new energy efficiency efforts are now underway, departmental staffing level reviews have been replaced by a comprehensive staffing review, appointees were appointed, and more.

Saturday, March 28, 2015, marks the final week for the 9th season of the Winter Farmers’ Market.

It is also the 8th Annual CSA Fair hosted at Post Oil Solutions’ Winter Farmers’ Market.  We expect to have close to a dozen CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) represented along with our regular market vendor line-up, and a special guest from New Leaf CSA!

Take this opportunity to do your CSA research and pick your farmer for 2015! You will find farms with weekly CSA shares for vegetables, fruit, flowers and more.  Some offer deliveries to central pick-up locations while many invite you to visit their farms each week and get to know their operation.  Some farms even invite you into their fields to lend a hand in picking the weeks harvest.  So join a CSA.  It’s a great way to support local agriculture and the local economy!

Repairs to the Green Street retaining wall and the Elliot Street bridge will be front and center at the next regular meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard.

The board will also take up, again, a discussion of Property Assesed Clean Energy districts, will have second reading and public hearings for two amended ordinances, make appointments, assign Representative Town Meeting duties, and more.

Meetings are in the Municipal Center on Main Street. You can attend in person, comment, and bring up other items not on the agenda during public participation.

The Vermont Comedy Divas —the only all-female, touring stand-up comedy troupe in the United States — bring their acclaimed brand of stand-up comedy to the River Garden in a fund-raising event for Strolling of the Heifers on Saturday, April 4 at 8 p.m.  All tickets are $15. Buy online at http://vtdivas.brownpapertickets.com/, or at the River Garden (cash only, Mon-Fri 9-5). Age suggestion: 16+

The Brattleboro Arts Committee will meet on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 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 Tree Advisory Committee will meet on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 at 7:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

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

The Brattleboro ADA Advisory Committee will meet on Friday, March 13, 2015 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

On Thursday, March 12th at 7:00 PM, in the Hayes Court Community Room on Garfield Drive, the West
Brattleboro Association is hosting a Q&A session with District 1 Town Meeting members.  All residents, most especially District 1 residents, are invited. The hour-plus meeting will be facilitated by Orion Barber.

Immediately preceding the Q&A, at 6 PM in the same community room, the WBA will be holding its regular monthly meeting. The primary topic will be the pursuit of both Vermont and federal non-profit-hood.  If time permits, there will also be discussion of safety issues related to Marlboro Road traffic and to recent break-ins..

The Selectboard has found a way, they think, to keep the municipal tax rate the same as last year. A new dog park is anticipated to join the skatepark at the top of Living Memorial Park. There’s a new financial and budget plan in the works for the town, and new zoning is also underway.

The press, however, abandoned this meeting when there were election results to chase, leaving the board to lament a total lack of reporting, other than BCTV, of important issues.

Read on for the full report of the over four hour meeting.

Once again, the voters of the Town of Brattleboro have weighed in.  Since all of the candidates were running unopposed, they all won. Turnout was not listed but it appears to be just under 1000 voters.

On the ballot questions, there were four, numbered 2 through 5.  All of the ballot questions failed, including and notably, the 1% sales tax.  John Allen suggested at tonight’s Selectboard meeting that with this vote (nearly 2-1 against), the Selectboard might want to give the 1% LOST tax a rest for a while.

Outside the snow is falling and Brattleboro snow plows are plowing.  Just another night in the town that spring forgot…on Town Meeting Day 2015. Read on for links to full results and ballots.

All candidates elected. All ballot measures defeated.

Details later.

A new dog park for Brattleboro? It will be up for discussion at the next regular Tuesday meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard, to be held in the BCTV studios to make room for Election Day activities on the second floor of the Municipal Center.

The board will hear legal opinions on bonds and bids, hear about the new zoning ordinances being planned, continue with decisons relating to Pay As You Throw, and will discuss assessing penalties and/or suing Brattleboro businesses to collect the business license fees.

You can participate by attending in person, or you can watch on BCTV. We’ll have the full account here the day after.

The Brattleboro Energy Committee will meet on Monday, March 2, 2015 at 5:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

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