For stories pertaining to the town of Brattleboro at large and its government.
Due to installation of new doors at the Brooks Memorial Library, the back door next to the Municipal Center parking lot will be closed for the week of April 15th. The Library’s front door on Main Street will be open throughout the week. Those requiring wheelchair access to the building may call the Library at (802) 254-5290 x109 (days) or x0 (evenings) to arrange for access during the construction.
The next “Brattleboro Citizens’ Breakfast” will take place on Friday, April 19, 2013 at the Gibson Aiken Center, downstairs, hosted by Senior Meals. Doors open at 7:30am.
Moss Kahler promises to speak to everything you want to know about Brattleboro’s upcoming Curbside Compost program — about containers/cart; what’s OK and what is not OK to put in the curbside compost; how to sign up; where and when to pick up curbside carts and kitchen containers; what it costs to participate; when it will start . . . (etc.)
Please do not hesitate to pass along this invitation to others who might be interested, but:
Tonight at our regular meeting, the Town Finance Committee voted unanimously to request that the municipality (Brattleboro Town Government) discover and sum up the total amount of public (tax) monies spent to originally create, and to continue since then to maintain, the Robert H. Gibson River Garden, from the time of its inception until the current time.
The Brattleboro Selectboard will hold a special meeting on Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 5:30pm 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, April 9, 2013 at 4:00pm in the Selectboard meeting room at the Municipal Center.
The Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee will meet on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 4:30pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.
Wine and beer at galleries and bookstore events will have to wait until Vermont offers up definitions of galleries and bookstores. So sayeth the Selectboard.
Brattleboro’s Police-Fire Facility Project oversight committee has been formed, a new skating rink compressor will be purchased, and Brattleboro has begun the first of what may be many solar energy projects.
The new Selectboard got off to a good start, with a new commitment from the Chair to hear all viewpoints. The new seating arrangement is, from left to right, Schneck, Schoales, Gartenstein, Sondag, O’Connor, and Allen. Longtime Selectboard watchers can make of it what they may.
The following dates have been scheduled for Brattleboro’s curbside Spring Leaf Collection. Whereas in the past leaf pickup was determined by scheduled day of rubbish pickup, all locations will be picked up each Friday:
Leaf Pick Up Date
ALL RESIDENTS Friday, April 12, 2013
ALL RESIDENTS Friday, April 26, 2013
At the first meeting of the new Brattleboro Selectboard, the board will again take up the issue of a new state law allowing beer and wine at gallery events. They’ll also discuss a proposal to purchase solar energy from ISA Solar and Green Lantern Capital from a site to be determined.
They will also hear from new owners of Elliot Street Fish, Chips and More, appoint members to the Police Fire Facility Project oversight committee, consider skating rink repairs, set board goals, and review their rules of conduct. All this and more, and you can watch on TV or attend in person.
The Brattleboro Energy Committee will meet on Monday, April 1, 2013 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
A day of changes in Brattleboro.
Andrea Livermore has just announced that she will be resigning from Building a Better Brattleboro effective April 12, 2013. She says she may serve in a part time capacity through the fiscal year to provide for a smooth transition.
She says:
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.
