Blog#201- 5/14/24
A GOOD PLACE TO LIVE
By
Richard Davis
I have only been a selectman in the town of Brattleboro, Vermont for a very short time and I still have more questions than answers about how our little New England town of 12,000 operates. I suspect that most people pay their taxes and hope they get good service from the town. There are a large number of committed citizens who serve on committees. Many represent the people at town meeting and they all gain insight into the details of town government.
As a selectboard member I have received a short overview of the town departments and I had no idea how much work is involved in keeping a town working efficiently. I am also amazed at the dedication and competency of all of the people who work for the town, whether as a department head or as a member of the road crew.
I like to think big and I am trying to look to the future and see what I might do now to make Brattleboro a better place for many more years. But I am struggling to come up with ideas that are practical and make sense. No matter what you want to do for the town, you need a lot of money to do it. That is the reality of any government entity.
Perhaps we don’t need to spend too much time on a broad vision as long as all of the people who run town government have plans that keep our town safe, solvent and working efficiently. And we do have that. Town finances are in good hands and we will be in good shape for many years to come. No one can predict disasters and events out of our control so we do the best we can with what we have. Rainy day planning is always part of the picture.
So if the town is working well why should I or anyone else try to make it better? As the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Maybe a mostly smooth running town is the best we can hope for. But I am not someone who can accept the status quo and say that everything is good enough because I know we could always do better.
I do have a few ideas about how Brattleboro could move in new directions and they all cost a lot of money. In these difficult economic times the last thing taxpayers want to hear is ideas about how to spend more money. But we should dream because we might find new sources of revenue and economic times may get better. Pollyanna. Maybe.
After looking at the town’s finances it is clear to me, as a person who is not too sharp when it comes to budgets, that we need more tax revenue. That won’t happen by having more people move here and it won’t be enough to have a few small businesses fill up the storefronts on Main Street. We need businesses that will employ 50-100 people that see Brattleboro as not only a good place to do business but also a place that offers a high quality of life.
We are centrally located and two hours to Boston, four hours to New York, two hours to Albany and four and a half hours to Montreal. Brattleboro should be considered a hub and I think that our central location has not been marketed enough.
There are groups in town doing marketing to attract business and I realize it is a difficult job. If we are ever going to be able to develop creative long-range plans we need streams of revenue that only mid to large size businesses can provide.
Brattleboro sits along the Connecticut River and we have not used that fact our advantage in recent decades. The topography is difficult but there must be some skillful engineers and landscape architects who could build on the new spaces that will be available when the old Hinsdale bridge shuts down.
Recreation is not just a frivolous add on. We need recreational options to attract people here as well as to improve the quality of life for all of us who live here. There will be discussion of improving the town pool. We need to look to the future for that project.
I would like to see a paved trail system around Brattleboro. I know the price tag for that is ridiculous, but we should develop plans and options in addition to the Whetstone Pathway. Santa Claus will not put a pile of money under the town’s Christmas tree anytime soon but we still need to dream.
