Town News

During Gallery Walk on Friday, January 8 (5:30-8:30 p.m.), Strolling of the Heifers invites the public to meet representatives of more than two dozen area non-profits at the River Garden in downtown Brattleboro.

At the event, which is called “Get the Word Out,” visitors can learn about what the organizations do, how to obtain services from them, how to participate in their programs, and how to volunteer. In addition, VT Dinners a startup company making frozen meals using locally grown ingredients, will offer tastings of their products, and the Brattleboro Women’s Chorus will entertain.

The Stroll’s art gallery, Gallery at the Garden, will be open as well, with a re-installation of the exhibit “Windham Grows,” which consists of photographic works by John Nopper and Jeffrey Lewis, depicting past winners of the Windham Regional Business Planning Competition sponsored by Strolling of the Heifers and Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, along with interviews with the subjects by Elizabeth Stoumen.

The Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting Finance Committee will meet on Friday, January 8, 2016 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 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

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

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.

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 5^th 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.

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.

Say goodbye to the Vermont Yankee emergency warning sirens. The Brattleboro Selectboard plans to endorse the idea of removing them at their next regular special meeting.

They will also recap their latest impressions and feelings about the Police Fire Facilities meetings, will review departmental FY17 budgets for the Library, Assessors, Town Clerk, Finance, Fire and Planning departments, and will again discuss postponing their Windham Solid Waste Management District Budget vote. You can bring up other items not on the agenda during Public Participation.

Watch on BCTV and read all about it here after the meeting.

The Brattleboro Energy Committee will meet on Monday, December 7, 2015 at 5:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

The Brattleboro Arts Committee will meet on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at 4:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

The Brattleboro Tree Advisory Committee will meet on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 at 7:00pm in the Hanna Cosman meeting room at the Municipal Center.

On Monday, December 14, at 6:00 pm, the West Brattleboro Association (WBA) will host its annual Holiday Party at The New England House, 254 Marlboro Road. This is a time for people and businesses in West Brattleboro to get together socially and to celebrate the Association’s numerous accomplishments in this past year. The evening will feature a cash bar with hors d’oeuvres prepared by the restaurant. The WBA suggests a voluntary donation of $5 toward the food, although no one will be turned away.

 In addition to this being a time to enjoy each other at this festive season, there will be a couple of short presentations.  The Association’s board president Michael Bosworth will give a brief “state of the Association” report after which the group will present the West Brattleboro Community Leader of the Year to a deserving person or entity. Come to our party to help us celebrate this worthy recipient! Previous winners have been Bill and Judy Daley of the Vermont Country Deli,  Ahmad and Kat Rashed of Rashed’s Garden Center, the staff and board of the Brattleboro Housing Authority, and Todd Darrah of the Chelsea Royal Diner, each for their many contributions to our community.

The Town of Brattleboro is looking for citizens to serve on the following committees and boards:

Agricultural Advisory Board
ADA Advisory Committee
Arts Committee
Citizens Police Communications Committee (CPCC)
Conservation Commission
Development Review Board Alternate

Major changes to Brattleboro’s trash and recycling were discussed, but decisions were delayed in order to gather more information from the public and solid waste district. And the prospect of savings from a switch to single stream recycling proved elusive.

BDCC and GS Precision received a decade of tax breaks along with loans and some property adjustments as a reward for staying in town, keeping and creating many good-paying jobs, and and supplying grandlist enhancing facilities.

Grants, an emergency compressor, committee vacancies, and more were also up for discussion.