The Brattleboro Selectboard started their meeting a bit late and ended it quite early, with a rare move of taking nearly everything major off of the agenda and moving it to next week. The reason? Two absent board members.
Almost the entire agenda will be added to next week’s agenda, making next week’s special meeting a whopper.
Preliminaries
The meeting starts a few minutes late.
Chair Brandie Starr said they were an abbreviated board, and the agenda will be changed. The town joining the opioid lawsuit, the community marketing initiative, the downtown alliance workplace, and the proposed FY21 budget will be moved to next Tuesday’s agenda, and I hope to see everyone. I know it is an inconvenience. (No Tim, No David)
Town Manager Elwell said that board was to confirm a series of budget meetings and we’ll make sure we do that next week. The budget review will begin next week and will be every Tuesday for several weeks. Also, if you’d like to review the proposed budget, the FY21 proposed budget is open the town’s website. Link on the homepage to the several pieces of the budget materials. 8-10 documents. Also, 3 weeks ago we announced the leaf pickups – this coming Friday is the final pickup. Put them out it brown paper bags. No plastic bags allowed. Also, the closures for Veterans’ Day weekend… everything closed for the town, except for emergency services and Recreation Programs. Extra hours at the rink! Trash pickup as usual. And my last comment…. we did a search for a new finance director, and didn’t find a successor in the first search, and will do a new search in the new year. John has agreed to stay on until we transition. He’ll reduce his hours and retire in the new year.
Public Participation – Brandie – are things we just took off the agenda on or off the agenda for public participation tonight?
Elwell – consider them off the agenda, and take public comments in advance of next week.
Brandie – (reiterates the agenda changes.)
Public Participation!
Dale Joy – I want to express about racial profiling. I watched it go on for 50 years in this town. The more records I go through the more I see it. It is insidious, and sometimes blatant. Our town needs to take a look at itself, and especially the police department..
Oscar Heller – Brattleboro Energy Committee – we’d like to request the board consider purchasing carbon offsets in the next budget – it is very cheap to get all municipal services be net zero. We hope to be back next week with a fuller report.
Rikki Risatti – I’m speaking to my peers. These are seeds I’ve collected. If anyone would like a pod, to cherish this tree from in front of the Abianti Monument place, you can have one.
Chief Fitzgerald – we’ll send out a public service announcement, but a reminder that it gets darker earlier now, so please slow down, take your time, give yourself extra space, and wear reflective clothing because visibility is impaired.
Brandie – and turn on headlights!
Liquor Commissioners
Brandie – Second Class Liquor License – S&M Venture LLC, d/b/a A Stop Food Mart … (formerly Sandir Sunoco on Putney Rd.)
Rashid Muhammad – We’ll open the gas station and be the new owner. We have gas, but need license so people can buy, pick and go. We have separate coolers for adults.
Brandie – can’t wait to try out the cooler thing.
approved!
Brandie – First and Seasonal Third Class Liquor Licenses – Hardy Foard Catering, LLC, d/b/a The Porch, Too … 648 Putney Rd.
Gretchen Hardy & Adrian Ginter(?)…
Elwell – 1st class is beer and wine and 3rd class is cigarettes
Adrain – and this is for catering….
Gretchen – we do breakfast and lunch and now we can do full service catering as well.
approved!
Green Street Parking Changes
Ordinance Amendments – Appendix C (Regulations Governing the Control of Traffic), Green Street, First Reading (a) Article II (Parking), Sections 16-100 (No Parking Areas) and 16-101 (Limited Parking Areas) (b) Article XI (One-Way Street), Section 16-71 (One-Way Streets)
Brandie – our new first item tonight.
Elwell – this comes with approval from staff and traffic safety committee. Concerns about speeds and such on Green Street. We did speed reviews, and got opinions, and have a recommendation – to conform the ordinance to the temporary one way during drop off and pickup and the hours in which it occurs. Bring it up to date. Second, we want to do parking in the pull off area differently. During school hours between drop off and pickup it has to sit vacant – we think it should be for short term parking, though, for people doing quick things at he school. Those are the changes that are proposed. You can discuss it tonight, and if you move forward, two weeks from tonight we’ll have a public hearing and adoption.
Elizabeth – the principal at Green Street will inform parents of the changes?
Elwell – this review started last spring and again in August. Parents got notifications and reminders of how it works. Part of congestion was from double parking and people making it less useful for everyone. Kids need to get out on sidewalk side.
Daniel – on Guilford St there were temporary speed bumps and seemed pretty effective. Have they looked at that?
Elwell – They are very labor intensive and we have to be careful how we use them. It’s a bigger operation than we anticipated. It takes hours and hours.
Liz – can we make temporary berms of ice in winter or is it too labor intensive? : )
Elwell – we think schools are good places to use these… we thought Living Memorial Park was a good place to start, but schools could be next.
Liz – it might be good to identify speed for the speed bumps.
Elwell – I think there is a sign, and it should force you to slow down. I think you can go 20-25 over it safely.
Daniel – your car has better suspension than mine. I don’t mind going 10….
More in two weeks!
Upfit of Police Vehicles – Bid Award
Chief Fitzgerald and Captain Carignan
Fitz – we have bids for the upfit of cruisers. We bought the two of them in Aug, and the next step is the upfit. We normally get a trade in for the cruisers and we got $3500 per cruiser. The Fire Department wanted one of them, so we didn’t get the second rebate. We put out a bid for the upfit costs, got one person to apply. We got one bid from Keene – $35,577.23 to SWNH (Southwestern New Hampshire Fire Mutual Aid Systems), leaving us just over $1000 under budget.
Liz – no paper transfer to give the fire department the car?
Fitz – they will be the new registered vehicle owners.
Liz – when you buy it, it is a shell?
Fitz – yes – you can have them do the upfit, or have another service do it – which we do. We save a lot that way. We can go with the local, responsive Keene folks.
Liz – good – that sounds responsible.
HB Lozito – what happens to the remainder of the money?
Elwell – it stays in the Capital Fund – there is always a fund balance, some amount of money accrues there over time. That balance just went up. It doesn’t go back to general fund.
Daniel – I just got a text from Tim. He likes my suit.
approved.
Committee Appointments
The Board is asked to appoint Jesse Wagner to the Conservation Commission and Gary Stroud to the Design Review Committee as an Alternate.
Daniel – we always get this wrong and it isn’t even late.
Liz – I’ll read nominations…
Both approved!
Brandie – that concludes our meeting for this evening. Come back, or contact us through social media. Sorry it didn’t work out for tonight.
Daniel – for folks who wanted to say something and can’t make it, we have emails and phone numbers.
Liz – I take emails and calls.
Brandie – me too. Calls always surprise me. Email is always good. We’re done at 6:57.
Daniel – a world record?
Brandie – we’ll need to get a tattoo…