Town News

At the invitation of Building a Better Brattleboro (BaBB), the Brattleboro Selectboard will meet with representatives from BaBB and VT Department of Housing and Community Development on Monday, September 9, 2013 at 9:00am at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden to discuss the Brattleboro Downtown.

The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Friday, September 13, 2013 at 3:00pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center. It is anticipated that the Board will enter into executive session at 3:00pm to discuss a personnel matter, and that no business will be conducted.

On Thursday, September 12, 6:00-7:30 pm, the West Brattleboro Association (WBA) will hold its monthly meeting at The New England House, 254 Marlboro Road. The Association will review the treasury, traffic
safety including the new bollards on the stretch of Route 9 from Academy School to Greenleaf Street, the ‘Neighborhoods Project’, and any news regarding Glen Park and Mountain Home Park.

In addition, Association members will review the work plan for the remainder of the year starting with Columbus Day weekend Chicken Barbecue to be held near the West Brattleboro common in front of the First
Congregational Church. The group will discuss quantities of chicken and baked beans to be made for the event and ways to publicize it.

Conjuring visions of budgets past, the Brattleboro Selectboard discussed pay As You Throw and the 1% local sales tax as possible revenue-raisers for the town. This was in reaction to Tuesday evening’s dire forecasts for the FY15 budget and associated taxes that property owners will likely encounter.

ASL interpreters gave an account of the meeting to the hearing impaired for the first time, both the Planning Services and Library department reports were presented to the board, Strand Avenue will eventually be repaired, and the cost for using a tower on Wantastiquet jumps from $10 to $12,000 per year. And, of course, much more.

Two departmental reports are scheduled for the first September meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard. Planning Services’s Rod Francis and Brooks Memorial Library’s Jerry Carbone will update the board and the public about their respective departments and answer the question of what they would do with a 5% increase or decrease in their budgets.

ASL interpreters will begin translating each meeting beginning Tuesaday evening. This will allow even more members of the public to find out about repairs to Williams Street and the Cooke Road Bridge, preliminary budget discussions, the communications tower on Wantastiquet, the Town Manager search, and more.

You can attend in person at the Municipal Center or watch on BCTV via cable or stream, or read about it here the next day. Feel free to bring up other items not on the agenda during Public Participation.

In observance of Labor Day, all Town offices will be closed on Monday, September 2, 2013, with the exception of emergency services.

The Brattleboro Treasurer’s office will also be closed for renovations on Tuesday, September 3. Anyone wanting to make a payment will be asked to see the Finance Director in Suite 208 on the second floor of the Municipal Center.

Parking is free at all metered spaces and in the pay-and-display lots on Sunday and Monday, September 1 and 2, 2013. All other violations, including extended parking, will be enforced.

Brooks Memorial Library will be closed on Sunday and Monday, September 1 and 2, 2013.

Trash, recycling and composting WILL NOT be picked up on Monday, September 2, 2013. All pick-ups will be delayed by one day all week.

The Brattleboro Traffic Safety Committee will meet on Tuesday, August 27, 2013.  There will be a site visit at the intersection of Putney Road and Harris Avenue at 8:00am.  Following the site visit, the regular business meeting will reconvene at approximately 8:30am in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.

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

The Brattleboro Arts Committee will meet on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 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 Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee will meet on Tuesday, August 27, 2013 at 4:30pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.

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

The Brattleboro Police-Fire Facility Building Committee will meet on Thursday, August 29, 2013 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 Citizen Police Communications Committee (CPCC) will meet on Monday, August 26, 2013 at 5:30pm at the Brooks Memorial Library community room.

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

Some news from Tuesday night’s Selectboard meeting wasn’t mentioned at all during the meeting. In the written departmental report from the Brattleboro Police to the Selectboard were listed two items that neither the Police nor the Selectboard spoke about during the presentation to the board: powerful software to gather and evaluate intelligence of potential criminal activity, and live, remote access to private video systems in town.

From the Finance Director we learned that delinquent taxes increased by $100,000 in 2013. The Police Fire Project gained a Construction Management firm, the swimming pool will get some much-needed attention, and angels will begin appearing around Brattleboro in September.

Read on for full details.

The Waste Water Treatment Plant is substantially complete. So the Brattleboro Selectboard will hear at their next regularly scheduled Tuesday meeting at the Municipal Center on Main Street. The pump stations still need a bit of work, but work the main facility is at the finish line.

Also on the agenda: the Police Fire Facility Project committee will make a recommendation for “construction management services,” we’ll learn of plans to fix the swimming pool at Living memorial Park, the board will hear about a new public art project, there will be a report from the Brattleboro Police Department, the board will accept and approve some grants, and they will create a PACE district in Brattleboro by adopting a resolution that allows VEIC to manage the program.

All this and more at Tuesday’s meeting. You can watch on BCTV, on TV or online, and read all about it here the day after.

The first installment of the 2013 Real Estate and Personal Property Taxes will be due on August 15th, 2013. Payments made after August 15th, 2013 will have an additional 1% interest added to the unpaid balance.

The utility billing is also due on August 15th, 2013. Payments made after August 15th, 2013 will have an additional 1% interest, as well as an 8% penalty added to the unpaid balance.

A special meeting of the Brattleboro Selectboard is scheduled on Thursday, August 15, 2013 at 2:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center. It is anticipated that the Board will enter into executive session to discuss a contractual matter.

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

The Brattleboro Police-Fire Facility Building Committee will meet on Thursday, August 15, 2013 at 2:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

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

The Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee will meet on Tuesday, August 13, 2013 at 4:30pm 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, August 13, 2013 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 theatre is dark, the Earth is bare and Latchis Arts is reaching for the Heavens.  

The main theatre of the Latchis complex closed for renovations on August 1 and on that day, all 750 seats in the theatre were cleared from the auditorium.  Day 2 brought New England Scaffolding Co. to begin the task of filling the 30 foot high void with scaffolding high enough to reach the signs of the zodiac residing in the Heavens.  “We are thrilled that the seats and ceiling project is underway,” said Latchis Arts managing director Gail Nunziata.  “Months of planning with architect Jeremy Coleman and fund raising for the Campaign for The Heavens and The Earth by board and committee members have brought us to this moment.”

The Brattleboro Selectboard had no problems guiding the town at their first regular meeting without an official Town Manager at the helm. They even did it without their Chair, too.

The board navigated concerns about downtown sidewalks, skateboarders, and homeless people in the parks. They heard an update on the SeVEDS program and gave them a second check for $25,000. They received an overview of the Town Clerk’s office, and debated skating rink compressor options once again. 

The board discussed becoming another online news source for Brattleboro, and how best to prepare to hire locally for municipal projects with big budgets.

Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast – Networking for Sustainable Energy

The next “Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast” will take place on Friday,  August 16, 2013 at the Gibson Aiken Center, downstairs, hosted by Senior Meals. Doors open at 7:30am.

Jonathan Morse will hold a conversation on the Sustainable Energy Outreach Network (SEON)  ~ it’s purpose, past programs, and plans for the future. SEON is a “networking organization, passionately committed to the promotion of sustainable energy for the benefit of the public, businesses, educational institutions, and public sector organizations.